Redeemable?
by Commander Argus
Summary: Can Bonnie make a change for the better?  Can she leave her old life behind and find love? [Complete]
1. Am I Redeemable?

_**Redeemable****

* * *

**__Dear Bonnie,_

_I know I really should call you to say this to you. Heck, maybe I should come back home, but practice for the team is already starting and I might make starter this year and Coach says we have to stick close. I can't pass up an opportunity like that._

_For a while I really missed you. I got so used to being around you before I graduated that not having you to talk to really hurt for a while but then I started meeting some people. I've gotten to know some more girls here at the university and I've finally started to realize something. There are so many like you its not funny._

_I always thought you were hot and I thought it was my rightful place to have you as my girlfriend. Now I see that it had a lot more to do with how people thought of me, that it was cool that I was dating one of the hottest girls on the cheer squad._

_Don't take this the wrong way, but I have to say this to you. I was blind to it when I was around you but now that I've seen other people like this, I now know that you are just a petty, mean-spirited girl. I thought you had a lot of friends, but you don't. You have a circle of girls who are so afraid of you they fawn for your attention so you won't hurt them. That's not friendship, even if that's how you see it in your book._

_I also now see it clearly how you used me. You teased me, strung me along so you could have the quarterback on your arm. I used to think it was so cool when you would kiss me, but I wanted more, but that wasn't what I was there for, was it._

_Please stop trying to call me. I've finally met some nice girls who want to date me because they think I'm cool and are interested in me, not because of how I'll make them look. It's been more than a year since we broke up and I think it's time for you to move on, if you can. Maybe you'll take this to heart, I don't know, but if you don't change, I think you'll end up alone when everyone else starts figuring out the real you like I did._

_Sincerely,_

_Brick_

Bonnie sat on the edge of her bed, her legs crossed, her shoulders slumped forward as she read the letter over and over. Her tears were flowing freely, staining her face with dissolved mascara. Brick was right. After graduation her posse had all but dissolved. The few who remained after school ended quickly lost interest in being around her and most of them would be headed for schools all over the country in just a few short weeks. Free from the high school social structure referred to as the 'food chain' they were no longer under any illusion that being around her would secure them a place in it.

For the first time in years she found herself alone and adrift. There were no friends to call, no guys to entice into a date. The kind of guys she had been willing to attract to her never called for a second time. They were interested in one thing and she was not willing to do that, despite the unearned reputation she had while she had been dating the big blonde. Once they figured that out, it was over. Word spread quickly about 'Bonnie the Ice Queen' and not even the social climbers were interested in being seen with her any more.

Her senior prom just a few months before had been an unmitigated disaster. She had gotten it in her head that she would have to 'put out' if she was even going to have a date, a thought that almost made her physically ill at the time. The thought of having some boy pawing all over her, his sweat stinking body against her was just repulsive. Still, she gritted her teeth and picked the least heinous of those who would even speak to her, subtly implying what awaited him after the dance.

The Prom itself was an exercise in despair for her. Just watching those two dancing, not once taking their eyes off each other almost made her physically ill. Seeing that tiara placed on her red hair, the princess becoming the Prom Queen was the last straw. She stormed out of the gym, her date abandoned to his own devices. Her 'virtue' intact simply because she could not stand the thought that her rival had won so much for settling for so little.

It didn't occur to her that night that what she was feeling was jealousy. Intense, burning jealousy that poisoned her heart. Wasn't she the most beautiful, the best liked, the most popular girl in the school? How come it all went to that squeaky clean princess and her loser boyfriend? How come they got to be the ones with all the friends? How come she was the one who got to be happy?

How come she was the one who was loved?

Why were those losers the biggest winners?

She ran home, crying the entire way. No solace waited for her there either. First her mother ripped into her after finding some of her 'preparation' for the night, misunderstanding why she was so upset. Her sisters were in on it as well, heaping all kinds of scorn on her for besmirching the family name like that, even though both of them were notorious for such behavior themselves. She ended the night crying in her room, grounded for something she hadn't even had the guts to follow through with.

The tears lasted until the anger started setting in. How dare her mother ground her? She was eighteen, she was an adult!

The screaming match that followed almost ended with her being kicked out of the house. It also led to her finding her date the next day, not to apologize, but to follow through on her promise to him.

That only made things worse for her. She felt dirty and used and never spoke to the boy again. It didn't matter, because he was more than happy to report to his cronies what had gone on. Her reputation, finally backed by a grain of truth, was finally shattered. Graduation couldn't come quickly enough.

Bereft of her false friends, Summer had dragged by like with an endless succession of pointless dates with boys who could best be described at only one step above losers and repeated attempts at patching things up with her parents. At least her father came back to her side, buying her a nice car as a graduation present. Even that paled when she saw the fluff piece the local news stations ran about another graduation party.

The Princess sure looked silly with her goofy little car and that goofy boy sidekick of hers fawning over her on the television. It didn't help when the spot ran again later that night on one of the entertainment shows.

With an audible growl, Bonnie balled up the letter, throwing it across the room where it bounced off the side of her waste basket. She sat there a few minutes more, steaming.

How dare Brick say those things to her? She stuck by him almost all the way through his senior year. It was right that she tossed him aside after the way he acted at the Prom, leaving later with that little hussy friend of the princess. He had to be taught a lesson. A couple weeks then she would allow him back on her arm for the big party at the lake.

Yet he never came back. The last nail in their relationship had been driven. All she could think of was the fact he was gone because she wouldn't put out for him.

Now it was clear that wasn't the reason. His eyes had been opened to the real Bonnie and he wanted nothing to do with her.

Nobody wanted anything to do with her any more. Didn't they see the hurt she lived with, the need?

She wanted what that goody-goody redhead had.

A door opened downstairs. She could hear voices. It was Connie and some guy. Her face scrunched up in anger, she sat down at her mirror, reaching down to scoop up the balled up paper beside the trashcan. She unfurled it, spreading it out on her dresser, not so much reading it as looking at it, hating what she saw there, hating it as much as what she saw in her mirror. She balled it up again and reached for her ash tray, dumping its contents in the can.

She opened her purse and took out her lighter, burning the letter into black ashes, fighting back tears as she watched black bits leap up from the burning paper as it was consumed, some landing on her, smudging her slightly. As soon as the fire was out, she dumped the remains out, a look of determination crossing her features.

Using a makeup remover, she cleaned the smudged ash off her skin, doing the best she could with what had fallen on her clothes. She could hear her sister climbing the stairs. For a tense moment she thought the snide, over made up blonde was going to come in, but she heard another door open and close, giggling wafting through the shut portal.

That was all she could take. Using a fresh clothe she wiped the smeared remains of her makeup off and grabbed her keys from the dish. Moments later she was in her new car, peeling out of the driveway, leaving her slutty sister to have her good time with her boyfriend.

She drove for almost an hour, the quiet and the solitude calming her down, letting her think. She left the top down on her convertible, letting the wind chase away some of her tears. The sun was going down and people were coming out, wanting to make the most of the beautiful Friday evening in the waning days of summer.

Just as the evening settled in she noticed a car on the side of the road, its hood up. She knew instantly whose car it was, but the sight of him was totally unexpected.

He was sitting in the open driver's door, a look of utter and total dejection on his face. What was surprising was how he was dressed. Bonnie always pictured him in a ratty red jersey or some tacky bowling shirt, not in a nice suit and tie. He was dressed to the nines. Even his unruly mop of blonde hair had been brushed and styled.

Before she could stop herself she asked "Loser-mobile conk out on you again, Mad Dog?" She winced at how automatically the cut had escaped her lips.

"Duh!" was all he replied, a look of anger and fear flashing in his brown eyes.

Bonnie looked at the young man, automatically smiling viciously. Any one of a dozen hurtful barbs sprang to mind, ready to be hurled at her main rival's boyfriend and near life-long companion. Then she started to wonder. Why is the Loser so dressed up? Wasn't K's B-day a couple weeks ago? That mean's Stoppable's birthday was just last week! Surely they had already had their special celebrations! Why would he be dressed to the nines for a date? Unless…

_No! This is so rich! The loser is even screwing this up!_

She looked at him a moment. He was so dejected. This wasn't right. Being rivals is one thing, watching something like this go wrong is another thing completely. This sort of thing was not to be screwed up. Not if she had anything to do with it.

Plus she would have something to hang over them _FOREVER_!

No! This is the kind of crap that has led you here, today, driving around alone without a friend to cry with. _Can it start here? Can I be redeemed? The boy might be a pitiful geek, but he's always seemed to have such a big heart. I know where his heart belongs, but is there room for a friend? Can I even act like a friend?_

"Get in, Ron." She reached over and opened the passenger door.

"Huh?"

"I said get in before I change my mind."

His head hanging, his face screwed up in confusion, he numbly got in. She noticed his hands were covered in black grime, most likely from the engine block of his pitiful excuse for a car.

"Here." Bonnie handed Ron a moist-nap for his dirty hands, followed by a small bottle of hand sanitizer. Sure, it wouldn't hurt for his hands to smell like gardenias!

In minutes they were in front of the Possible home. Bonnie simply pulled up to the curb and let Ron out.

"Thanks, Bonnie. I really don't know what to say."

"Just don't screw this up."

"What do you…"

"Uh huh. Just for one night, don't be a loser. K deserves better than that." With that she sped off, not waiting for Ron to say anything else.

_What was that all about? Why did I just do that?_

She drove on, the notion that she felt a great deal better because of it slowly becoming the answer.

* * *

A/N - This is the other side to a scene in **_Soulmates of the Fury_**. Some people need to find a turning point, to decide for themselves how to make a change for the better. 


	2. Purple Hearts

**Redeemable: Part II**

_**Purple Hearts

* * *

**_

If finally happened. Bonnie Rockwaller had escaped.

She let herself sink down into the narrow, but soft mattress in her dorm room. She had been incredibly fortunate to snag a single room, rather than having to endure a roommate. The ten story tower dormitory Freshmen were housed in at Go City University had two rooms on each floor that were just too small to house two students. Apparently the spaces were meant for some other reason, but the school, wanting to get the maximum usage possible, converted them into a room.

When she first saw the space, her first thought were that her walk-in closet at home was larger, but when she settled down that first night, she knew the voices she heard outside couldn't care less who she was. It wasn't Connie teasing her about some misspoken fact or Lonnie deriding her looks. Sure, there was probably some fooling around going on nearby, but she didn't know her neighbors yet, and if she had any say in the matter, she wouldn't get to know them anyway. They could go on with their lives and she could go on with hers.

What mattered was that she was free. Free from her much older sisters. Free from a mother who labored under the perpetual notion she was still twelve years old. Free from a father who claimed he worshiped the ground she walked on but was all but invisible in her life. Sure, he bought her a baby blue Mustang for graduation, but she would have rather had him around instead of the car. She didn't even get to use it, as resident Freshmen were not permitted to park on campus. She ended up having the car stored clear across the sprawling city in order to avoid the premium prices near the campus. Oh well, the subway could carry her there when it was time to retrieve it, and that was better than taking a bus or plane back to Colorado every time she wanted to drive her own car.

The first day of classes had been a major drag. Instead of sitting in the back of a room made to seat twenty to twenty five students, most of her classes took place in lecture halls designed to seat hundreds, and almost every single one of them were full. At least she had the benefit of disappearing into the crowd. Freshman classes more closely resembled a cattle call than any kind of organized learning experience. There wasn't any attempt to take any kind of roll. The professor, or more often for introductory level courses assistant professors, just walked in and started their lectures. She supposed the only way they would know anyone was attending the class would be when they graded the assignments.

Halfway through the day, she was taking a break, drinking a decaf soy latte out in the quad when she noticed a rather interesting looking guy sitting on a concrete wall near a statue she had yet to learn the identity of. She wasn't sure why she noticed him. He wasn't the type she would consider a hottie. In fact, he didn't look at all like he was a pleasant fellow at all. Her first impression was of one of the ubiquitous Goths who seemed to populate colleges throughout the country, but discarded that notion when she got a good look at him.

He had the pale skin and dark clothing, but the long-sleeve shirt he had on was actually very dark purple instead of black. His skin was merely light colored, like he didn't get out in the sun too often. He might have been reasonably good looking if he smiled, but instead he had the sourest expression she had seen on a guy in a long time.

She shook her head and turned her attention elsewhere. He was too skinny for her to consider anyway. No, that wasn't fair. She spend the latter half of her senior year in high school pining over a shorter, skinnier guy than him. Except he was kind, considerate and outgoing in a goofy sort of way. This guy just looked like a real pill.

Ick! She shuddered slightly, mentally smacking herself for even thinking along those lines. The guy she pursued just happened to be the most unavailable guy on the planet, to the point where she actually assisted in a way with his proposal. This wasn't the same thing, was it?

Yet, she somehow found herself getting up and walking over toward him. Picking a spot about five feet away, she sat down. He never once looked up, concentrating fully on a tattered paperback novel. She tried looking over his shoulder, but couldn't tell what the book actually was.

Apparently he'd noticed her approach. "What?" He muttered, letting the book close over his thumb.

"Nothing, just wondering what you were reading." She said pleasantly.

"Look, I don't care if you're one of those freaking fan-girls or something, I've only got forty-five minutes before I've got to be in class and I want to get some reading done, okay?"

"Okay, okay, geesh!" _Jerk!_ She thought as she started to get up.

He opened the book back up, but before he could start reading again he actually looked up at her. That's when she saw his eyes. They were actually purple, and at that distance, she could pretty much tell it was a natural color and not contacts, though she thought she might be mistaken. She thought only Elizabeth Taylor had violet eyes.

"Uh, hey, sorry. Just in a bad mood." His expression changed completely as he looked into her blue-green eyes. He certainly looked a lot better when he wasn't scowling. In fact, he was actually fairly good looking, in an average guy sort of way. He wasn't quite up to 'hottie' status, but her standards had changed a little over the last year. Going for the longest period of her teens without a boyfriend could do that.

He let the book flop closed again and held out a hand as Bonnie sat back down, a little closer to him. "Hi, my name's Mervin. Mervin Godfrey."

Bonnie raised an eyebrow. It was certainly an unusual name, at least that he would actually use it without resorting to a nickname. "I'm Bonnie Rockwaller." She shook his hand, which was surprisingly strong. "You said something about fans. Are you famous or something?"

He seemed to just realize he was still holding her hand and let go. "Well. Used to be. Don't get much notice any more since the team broke up, but hey, at least I can finish college in peace."

"You're a student here?" She asked, clasping her free hand over her knee.

"Well duh. You think I'd hang out here just for kicks? I'm a junior. Studying criminology. You?"

"I just started. Haven't committed to anything just yet. Gonna try some stuff an see what sticks."

"Heh. So, you're not from Go City, are you?" he set the book down, forgetting it for the time being.

"No. I'm originally from Boulder, but I grew up in another city in Colorado called Middleton."

"Yeah, heard of it. Actually, I spent a couple hours there, but the only thing I saw was some girl's kitchen before we had to leave."

Bonnie smiled warmly at him. She had no idea why, but she was actually starting to enjoy the conversation. Maybe it was just as simple as needing a fresh start. This guy didn't know she could be a hard-core bitch. Maybe if she managed to control herself, she could at least make one friend. Much as she didn't care to admit it, she was lonely. At least at home she had the last few hangers from her old posse, even if it had mostly dissipated by the time graduation rolled around.

What was most surprising, however, as their conversation wore on into the afternoon, even long after his class was supposed to start, was that he was perhaps the most self-centered person in the universe. Not only that, but he admitted it and claimed he was trying to work on it. Still, it seemed that every other word out of his mouth seemed to be 'me.'

Before she even realized it, she had missed her next class as well. She mentally kicked herself for not at least forming some acquaintances who could share notes or at least relay her assignments for her. She'd just have to deal as best she could.

Somehow or another, at that particular moment, she really didn't care.

* * *

Bonnie's eyes fluttered open. It was still completely dark out, so she checked her watch. Apparently something was blocking the clock on her nightstand. It was only about four in the morning, so she rolled over to go back to sleep…

…and rolled right into the warm body sharing the small bed with her.

The night before came back to her in an instant. All the talking, the Mexi-Mushroom Wraps at that gigantic Bueno Nacho, the walk back to campus…

…her asking Mervin to come in.

* * *

Bonnie Rockwaller (and all other Kim Possible Characters) © Disney

* * *

a/n – I originally intended this to be a one-shot, but once new ideas start bubbling, I've got to give them vent. 


	3. Family

**Redeemable: Part III - Family**

* * *

_Married or gay?_

Bonnie leaned on her fist, staring at the hunky guy behind the counter at the Mucho Grande Bueno Nacho. Normally, she wouldn't consider a guy in that position for any reason, but his appearance overrode that in this instance. At least he was wearing the clip-on tie of management. Still, in her mind, a guy his age that looked like that was either married or didn't care much for women in the first place. She knew it was wrong to think that way, but one didn't have to be completely politically correct with one's self.

It had been nearly a week since she had seen or even heard from Mervin, and it was looking more and more like it actually was what she feared; a one-night-stand. Oh, he had been a real gentleman about it. He stayed through morning and took her to breakfast, even giving her his cell phone number. She gave him hers as well and they parted company with a lingering kiss.

Then a day went by. Then another, and the phone remained silent. Well, not completely silent. She had made a few acquaintances who were as prone to constantly chat on the thing, but she had call-waiting, caller ID and voice mail. It was clear that Mervin simply had not called her back.

It surprised her that she had slept with him right after meeting him like that, but it was a spur of the moment thing, like some chemical reaction that had both of them in its grasp. One moment she was just enjoying conversation with him, the next they were kissing, the next…

All appearances to the contrary, that kind of behavior was alien to her. In fact, she had only been with two other men her entire life and both of those experiences she classified as regrettable and forgettable. The first had been the night after her Senior Prom, and that was done more out of spite than anything else. The next was a guy she had met over the summer and mistakenly thought she was attracted to. That turned into another lesson that looks could be deceiving. Just because a guy looked hot didn't mean it translated elsewhere.

The problem was, though, that she was finding her encounter with Mervin neither forgettable or regrettable. In other words, for that one particular night, he had made her very, very happy. Even beyond that, though, she found she was extremely interested in him as a person. Sure, he could seem selfish and self-absorbed on the surface, but she thought she could see something beyond that.

She sipped at her diet cola and watched people coming and going. Her thought was, since he brought her to that particular restaurant that night, he might return once more. He had some kind of ID card he used to pay for their meal, so there was some kind of connection with the place.

_Silly girl, you're turning into a stalker_ she told herself. _Maybe all that 'great guy' stuff you saw was just an act to get in your pants, and it worked!_ She tried convincing herself of that, but couldn't.

Bonnie had to make a decision about what she was going to do, and soon. There was a lull in the so far constant crowd and it would not be long before she would have to catch a bus or elevated train back to the campus for her next class, so she threw her half drunk soda in the trash and walked right up to the counter.

The big guy smiled brightly at her. He certainly would be a hottie if it weren't for the stupid orange shirt and those 'Clark Kent' glasses. Up close she finally noted the large gold band on his left-hand ring finger. Married, though to a woman or another guy, she couldn't tell.

"Yes, Miss, can I be of assistance?" The guy had a voice to go right with his overly muscular physique. To her it actually spoiled the image as quickly as if he had a squeaky voice or something. It was just too over the top.

"Um, yeah. Earlier this week I was here with this guy and he had this like ID card to pay and I was just wondering if he worked here or something."

"Does this 'guy' have a name? I'm the manager, so it would of course be proper procedure for me to know the names of all my employees."

"Oh, well, cool. His name is Mervin Godfrey."

The bulky manager's eyes lit up. "I thought I recognized you. I did see you with Mervin the other day."

"So he does work here?" She grinned a little more than she first meant to.

He shook his head. "No, he doesn't."

"But you know him."

The manager smiled broadly. "Of course I know him. He's my little brother."

Bonnie's mouth dropped open. "Your…little? But you don't look anything like him."

"No, we were both adopted, so there is no particular family resemblance. Oh, by the way, my name is Herman." He extended a great paw toward her. She found that, despite his size, he had a very gentle touch.

"So, do you have any idea where I could find him?"

"Right now? Unless he's in a class, I wouldn't have a clue."

"What about where he lives? I know he doesn't live on campus."

Herman frowned slightly. "I'm afraid if he hasn't told you where he lives, it wouldn't be my place to do so. I could give you his phone number."

Bonnie's shoulders slumped. "Thanks, but I've already got it."

Herman looked confused. "That's odd. He usually answers his phone. In fact, I'm constantly telling him we will have to have it surgically removed from his ear one day."

She bit her lower lip and looked away in embarrassment. "I…haven't actually tried his number. I kind of thought he would call me. You know, the rules say…"

The big man laughed. It wasn't a giggle, but a full throated guffaw that carried through the entire multi-story establishment. Nobody seemed to be bothered by it, so she assumed it must happen from time to time. "Mervin following 'the rules?' I'm sorry, Miss, but that is so rich. He's probably sitting there watching his phone, wondering if you are going to call him."

"But I've looked for him all over the campus. It's like he disappeared."

Herman looked like he was considering his words carefully. "We…he leads an interesting lifestyle. One that tends to call him away from normal life on a moment's notice. Look, since I don't know where he is right now, that seems to tell me he might be available to take your call. I think he might appreciate it, more than you would know, if I'm reading between the lines correctly."

She smiled broadly, actually quite thankful she had the foresight to ask the big man. "I'm hoping that's true. Oh, by the way, what's the deal with the ID card? That something you got for him since he's your brother?"

"Oh, sorry, that's another one of those things I had better leave to him. Trust me, if you do find out, you will understand."

"Uh, sure." She gave him a cock-eyed glance. "Thanks, you've been a big help."

"Glad I could be of assistance."

She walked out the door, pondering her cell-phone. What on Earth had kept her from calling him? Of course, she couldn't call him that next night. That would have just seemed desperate, rules or no. Then again, what did the rules have to say about a first date?

Date? That really wasn't a date. That was hanging around and talking half the day, then jumping in the sack. Was it possible she had scared him away? Did she seem too easy? She found herself back on the train, headed for campus, still holding her cell in her hand. She wasn't easy, she was the opposite of easy. Somebody really had to have what it takes to affect her like that and boy, did he ever have what it took.

So he was adopted. That was interesting. He did mention having a couple brothers and a sister, but they didn't go into any details. In fact, with all that conversation, he never really talked about the rest of his family or what he actually did outside of his school life all that much. That got her to wondering exactly what Herman meant about his 'lifestyle.' Or what that slip about 'we' meant as well.

* * *

Bonnie Rockwaller (and all Kim Possible Characters) © Disney 


	4. Shrinking Violet

**Redeemable: Part IV – Shrinking Violet**

* * *

Bonnie checked the address she had scribbled on the post-it note. Sure enough, this was the right place, though she didn't see how it could be. The house didn't look _too_ bad. That is, the grass was cut and the bushes were trimmed. That could have been done by a service so the home could meet the minimal standards of the neighborhood.

The area may been more upscale at some point, but as the city grew, the section that could be considered the outskirts got pushed further and further outward, until the old suburb was completely encircled by strip-malls, fast food joints and a super-sized Smarty Mart, roughly tripling the traffic in the area.

The neighborhood was like an island in the midst of all that urban sprawl. Most of the homes were neat, but never especially fancy. Yet this one, the very home the registrar listed as that of one Mervin Godfrey, looked like it had not been lived in for several years. The paint looked like it was starting to fade and none of the windows had any curtains in them. She carefully peered into one window. The home was not completely empty, but what furniture there was inside looked like it had an inch of dust on it.

_I am a complete idiot_ Bonnie thought to herself as she made her way into the back yard. _All I need to do is take out my phone and call this guy. Then he can tell me off and that will be the end of it. There's no reason to drag this out any further. It was just that one night, and nothing more._

Still, she just couldn't push herself over the edge. Twice since the bus dropped her off at the edge of the neighborhood she had her cellular out, her manicured nails hovering over the keys. One call and it would all be over. Yet, did she really want it to be over?

_Oh yeah, Rockwaller. Really mature hanging on to some kind of fantasy about being with a guy you hardly know, one who tells the registrar he lives in some abandoned house in a forgettable neighborhood._

The fence was slightly open, so she let herself into the back yard. Whoever had been cutting the front, they apparently only did part of the property in the back. The fence disappeared into dense overgrowth. It was as if some part of the larger than expected back yard had been given up on.

She suddenly found she had enough of the distraction. In two hours she would have to be back on campus for her sociology class, and that meant navigating the monstrous city's confusing bus/train network. It was one thing to hop on a train and head for the center-city. It was quite another to find her way out into the 'burbs, especially given that many of them managed to incorporate themselves as separate cities before they could be enveloped by the growing mass of Go City.

As she turned to go, she noticed something just beyond the small, barely manicured section of yard. One tree seemed to stand above the rest, though it looked as if the mother of all lightning storms had hit it once, perhaps many years earlier. The smashed sections had scabbed over and new branches shot forth from the semi-ruined trunk. What first caught her eyes were the several different hues in the leaves. Fall was still several weeks off and it was more than a month before the trees would actually start changing. Yet, it wasn't an autumnal change she saw in the growing expanse of the tree. One section of branches, the leaves were as green as she would ever expect an oak of that size to be, yet another they had a sort of reddish cast to them, and in another they were distinctly bluish. As she stepped closer to the broad base of the tree, hidden in tall grass and overgrowth, she could see yet another part where the leaves had a distinctly purple cast to them. On whole, the tree did still look completely green, but up close the mixed hues were much easier to see.

There was something else about the tree that was oddly familiar. Then she saw it. There wasn't much left except some splintered decking still clinging to the branches, but she could make out the remains of the treehouse. That had to be what it was. Strangely, that took her mind back to somebody else, somebody she knew had a treehouse of his own.

With a silent curse, Bonnie shoved the mental image of Ron out of her mind. She had seen the tabloids the day before proclaiming that he was now engaged to Kim. Any possibility of being with him simply faded away like a piece of that newsprint left too long in the sun. Being honest with herself, she knew she never actually missed that chance, she never had a chance in the first place.

That made her think all that much about Mervin again.

* * *

Herman stepped off the water taxi, confidently making his way up the rocky slope of Go Island. The island itself was more of a rocky jetty out in the harbor than a real strip of land. It was created almost solely to serve as the foundation for the Go Tower.

He actually hated taking the water taxi all the time to get there. Why couldn't he have the power of flight to go along with his super-strength? He even tried the trick of jumping at full power toward the island, but he could never get the trajectory just right. He would end up sailing right over the top or landing short. It also dawned on him the one time he almost got it right that being super strong didn't make him invulnerable. If he had hit, those rocks were going to hurt!

Walking right up to the main entrance of the tower, he put his palm on the outline of a hand and gave his blue blow power just a slight surge. Right after he got married, he started griping about the lock only working for members of his family with the Go Team Glow, but he quickly realized that sometimes it was nice to have one little refuge from the wife, or at least one that she couldn't fuss at him too much about. After all, the Go Tower was a citadel of justice, not a bar or some other disreputable place to spend his time. At least there he would not be called upon to use his great powers to change a poopy diaper.

His three brothers still actually lived in the tower, though Wesley and Wendell weren't around that often. They would spend most of their day after High School with their girlfriends, themselves a pair of twins. It would be long after dark when they finally came home.

That left one person alone in the huge building to sulk. He was sitting, in uniform, at the round conference table in the main hall.

"So, I take it you still haven't called her." He spoke to his brother, trying to keep his 'hero voice' as low as he could.

"No, I haven't…hey, how did you know about that? I haven't even mentioned it to the Wegos yet."

"She came by the restaurant this afternoon asking after you. Mego, are you insane? That girl is completely taken with you. Why haven't you called her?"

"I don't know. I just can't seem to make myself."

"Have you gone out with her? If you don't like her, then at least you should call her and let her down easy." Herman couldn't actually believe he was saying that to…Mervin. The twins were popular with the girls, but the middle brother? That was why he found it so urgent he not let the opportunity pass him by.

"It's not that I don't like her…I like her fine, it's just…Herm, I just don't know. There's something about her. She's self-centered, kind of nasty and she went on and on for more than an hour about this girl she went to high-school with. Yet…I can't get her out of my head."

"Then call her. Mego…Mervin, she is a beautiful young woman who is interested in you enough that she wanted to find out where you live, all after one date."

"I wouldn't exactly call it a date, more like listening to her bitch about that girl, then we went back to her dorm."

"You didn't…"

"Yes, I slept with her. Maybe that's why she's all stalky and stuff. I just can't figure how any one human being could be that self-absorbed."

"It boggles the mind." Herman said flatly.

"And, how can she not know who I am. I can't walk from one class to another at the university without somebody saying 'Hi Mego' 'has it shrunk any more Mego?'" He looked up at the ceiling as if he were asking the sky for answers.

"Mego, really, we are not that well known outside of Go City. If you remember, even Kim Possible didn't know who we were the first time we met her. Where is this girl from anyway?"

"I dunno. Some place in Colorado. Boulder I think she said."

"Well, there you go. If you ask me, that's a good sign. She went out with you because of who you really are, not because of your public persona, though I don't think it will be long if she is going to school here before she realizes that you are in fact a superhero." He laid a hand on his brother's shoulder. "Listen, no matter what you think may happen, no matter what happens, you should call her. What is the worst that can happen?"

"You apparently haven't watched that Glen Close movie lately, have you?" Mervin said, pulling his cell phone out and putting it on the table.

Before either one of them could say anything else, it started ringing, the caller ID displaying a number and its city of origin.

Middleton Colorado.

* * *

Bonnie Rockwaller (and all Kim Possible Characters) © Disney 


	5. Missed Connections

**Redeemable: Part V – Missed Connections**

* * *

The phone kept ringing until it went to voice mail. Then she dialed the number again. At least she knew she had the right number, though Mervin's voice sounded a lot whinier over the phone than it had in person. She closed her slim-phone and leaned against the window of the bus watching the city as it rolled by.

What was she thinking anyway? There were millions of people in the city to choose from, and she was worried about one guy who apparently was turning out to be a jerk after all. What did he matter to her anyway? How was he different from any of the other guys she had been out with since breaking up with Brick? How many of them wanted the same thing she had given him without so much as an afternoon just enjoying some conversation? Had the uprooting of her life in Middleton affected her that much?

Then again, she had rung his phone twice and didn't leave a message. Would that have just sounded desperate? Would she have been just like Kim when she didn't have Ron to be with on Friday nights? What had she told 'miss perfect' that night? Oh yeah. "Have a life!"

She let her head bump up against the greasy glass window, not caring about her expertly highlighted, razor cut coif. She had been away from home a total of three weeks, counting having to be on campus one week early for cheerleader tryouts. It was early Friday afternoon and she had no more prospect for a date that night than she had the previous two, or for most of the last month of her final summer at home.

For so long she had been the top of the ladder, the queen of the Middleton High School food chain, only to see that power fade in her final year and utterly evaporate almost the moment she accepted her diploma. None of the girls she once considered her friends called her any more. In the end, it was only the power she wielded that held them close, and once she was rendered irrelevant, that was gone. She had even tried calling Alicia, but she almost didn't remember her, having moved on after graduating two years earlier.

Going to a university with over five thousand students, living in a dorm that housed hundreds, on the edge of a city that was home to millions, Bonnie Rockwaller was feeling crushed with loneliness. For half a moment, she had the phone back out, the face open, about to actually call Ron himself, if for no other reason than to just have someone to talk to. Instead she not only closed it, she turned it off. Much as she desperately needed to hear the voice of a friend, she knew how his fiancé might react to such a call and she oddly cared enough for both of them not to do it.

_This is the wreck of your life, your punishment for all the crap you've dealt out over the past, what? Twelve years? Thirteen? Have I been an unholy bitch that long?_

What part of it had she done wrong? When she was little she wanted to be pretty and popular, just like Connie and Lonnie were. She certainly had the looks part down, though none of her family would ever admit to that. She was always just a little shorter, a little skinner, a little smaller in the bust than Lonnie and to Connie, she was always just plain stupid. Yet all of that was proven wrong when she always came home with better grades than either one of them and she was the first one to actually be interviewed by a modeling agency. Apparently, Lonnie was actually too old by that point to be considered.

She really did have it all, yet she still found it necessary to be nasty to almost everyone, including the people she counted as friends. If they did not fit her socially accepted criteria, they were not worthy. If they were not worthy, they were only fit to be the subject of scorn, until they were excised from her life. She only wanted to be surrounded by the best and that included people. It was only just starting to occur she had strip-mined the whole pool of potential friends in the search for only the perfect, beautiful people.

It was also occurring to her she had no idea how to find a real friend.

She twisted around in the uncomfortable seat, putting her chin on her fist. Was that why she was so turned around about Mervin? As good as the end of that day turned out, it really was the way they hit it off just talking that interested her the most. He seemed like he was a good listener, or at least didn't try to shut her down when she rambled on, spilling out all the crap that was rolling around in her head.

Of course, she had no idea if he was really listening, or just letting her ramble. The only way she would ever be able to judge that is if she actually got to know him. Oddly enough, she found she really did want to do that. There was something fascinating about him. Something tickled the edge of her consciousness telling her there was something under his slightly abrasive exterior. There was something there that somehow reminded her of Ron.

That was a strange thought. Why would she even compare the two of them? Ron was probably one of the least self-centered people she knew. Mervin seemed to be the complete opposite of that. Yet, she sensed he was himself an outsider of sorts, though it was not from some idea of setting himself apart from society just for the sake of being different, it was more because he was walling the world off from him.

Then too, when she kissed him, she wanted to kiss him. Everything that followed she wanted to do. Even now, the only regret she had was that she had not called him sooner, making her think she had made a terrible mistake and had missed an opportunity.

The bus reached her stop and she got off, collecting a transfer for the train that would take her back to the campus. Sadly, she let her mind switch gears, preparing for the scheduled quiz she would have to take. Then she could turn her mind back to the young man.

She had to keep trying. She was too lonely not to.

* * *

Herman just glared at his brother as he let the phone ring over and over. Mego just looked back at him, giving him the visual equivalent of saying 'what?'

"That is her, isn't it?" Herman pulled up his blue chair and sat down across from his little brother.

"Yeah. So?"

"And you're not going to answer it?"

"Why should I? If I answered the phone for every little fan-girl who called me, I'd never get a moment's peace."

The larger man eyed him dubiously. "When exactly was the last time somebody called you?"

"Me? I dunno. I just don't have time for this."

"Why not? You have time to sit here sulking. Look at me, I have time to work in my restaurant full time, serve my city as Hego, then go home to Macy and Herman Jr. at night. I'm not saying you should run right out and marry this girl, but it certainly would not hurt you to actually date somebody for a change."

"That's not it." Mervin dropped his head down behind his arms, with just his eyes showing.

"Then what? Did you not like her? You must have liked something about her. You gave her your number didn't you?"

The younger man just peered up at his brother over his arms. "That just seemed like the right thing to do under the circumstances. I didn't want her to think it was just some random one-night-stand or something."

Herman crossed his arms across his expansive chest. "That, bro, is the stupidest excuse I have heard from you. It sounds to me like you intend to make nothing more of it than just that. I will ask you again, did you like her? Or, if I may resort to more base language, was she good in bed?"

Mervin's head shot up. "Don't talk about her like that. Yes, I liked her, but things got out of hand there. I thought I was on my way to making a sort of friend and I ended up, well, screwing it up."

"Then unscrew it up. Pick up the phone and call her. Talk to her, ask her out, take her to lunch. Just do something besides ignoring her. If nothing else, just make your feelings known so she isn't left wondering if she did something wrong." He got up and started to leave the room. "I have some work I need to take care of in my office, plus I have to get ready for my meeting with our new Global Justice liaison. You need to think about what you are doing with your life. Soon enough you will be finished at the university and there needs to be something beyond just cruising through life as a part-time superhero."

"Herman, don't lecture me on everything being about me. It gets so old. I know you're the oldest, but I'm twenty, you're not my keeper any more."

"Actually, Mervin, it is about you. You need to do this for yourself. In fact, this is for you too." He scooped up the phone from the table and hit the dial-back function. The phone only three times before it went to voice mail, making the big man think the young woman turned the phone off. "Hello, this is Herman, I spoke to you today at my Bueno Nacho. Yes, this is my little brother's phone number. Please don't give up trying to reach him. Goodbye."

Mervin glared at him as he set the cell phone down and headed for the elevator. Then he glared at the phone sitting there as if it were accusing him of something itself.

Waiting until the doors closed on his brother, he picked the phone up and hit redial himself. Just as before, it went straight to voicemail. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but nothing came out. He finally closed the phone and sunk his head back down into his arms.

* * *

Bonnie Rockwaller (and all Kim Possible Characters) © Disney 


	6. Different Flowers

**Redeemable: Part VI – Different Flowers**

* * *

It was really a needle-in-the-haystack situation. Bonnie never truly appreciated just how large the campus of Go City University was until she set out to find one specific person there. Of course, there was always the chance Mervin simply didn't come to school over the weekend since he didn't live on campus, but that didn't stop her from trying to spot him on the off chance he had to use the library or some other facility.

She spent the latter half of Friday upbeat after hearing the message from his brother, then slowly sank into despair once more as the weekend wore on and he didn't answer his phone. She left a couple messages for him, but didn't want to chance seeming too desperate. He never called back, so she decided to try one more thing on Monday, then let the whole issue die. There was a cute guy who worked in the registrar's office. Maybe she could convince him to let her take a peek at his class schedule, then she could actually wait for him. Failing that, maybe she would just act a little forward herself and ask that other guy out.

The student cafeteria was going to get old really quickly. Up until she moved into her dorm she would have thought it was impossible for an eating establishment to be worse than the caf at Middleton High School, but at least there they had to meet the minimum nutritional standards of the school system. That didn't seem to apply at all to the food services at the university. Unfortunately, the dining near the campus seemed to think their fare should come at a premium, so if she wanted to make it to her next allowance deposit she would have to use her campus dining card for the majority of her meals.

She sighed as she put her key-card into the slot to let her back into her room. Friday and Saturday night had been spent in there, watching her tiny thirteen inch television, hoping she could talk her father into buying her one of those little refrigerators and a bigger microwave so she wouldn't have to eat so much of that garbage. It also dawned on her that maybe she would have been better served simply hanging out at the massive mall than sulking in her dorm. At least that way she stood some chance of meeting somebody. In short order she already mentally rejected any of the guys living on her floor, further isolating her in that tiny single room.

Bonnie almost screamed when she opened the door and saw somebody sitting in her desk chair. Then she almost hauled off and smacked him when she realized who it was. Even that didn't help to slow down her heart rate.

"Mervin? What the hell are you doing in my room?" She demanded, more angry at herself for being scared than she was upset at him.

"I, uh…I came up looking for you and the door was open and…I wanted to give you these." He handed her a small bundle of roses, trying his best to look forlorn.

She eyed him suspiciously, remembering quite specifically that she had shut and locked the door when she left. In fact, he shouldn't have been able to get in the building without a key-card. That meant either somebody let him in or he snuck in somehow, causing her creepy-meter to inch up slightly.

The roses helped, though.

"Okay, you've got five minutes to tell me why I shouldn't just kick your ass right out into that hall."

"Explain? Huh?"

"Yeah, explain. Explain why the hell it's taken you more than a week to show up at my door. No, scratch that, in my room, my home while I'm here at GCU when you could have called me a couple days afterwards. I could see you not calling that very day. That's the rule. But nothing the next day, or the day after that. I have to go halfway across town to find an empty house that hasn't been lived in for years, then back to your brother's restaurant and then wonder to myself if you've been actively trying to avoid me because I must have been bad in here or pissed you off somehow, or that you are some kind of jerk after all and…" She trailed off finally, her voice starting to crack slightly. "You're supposed to call me and tell me how special I am, because that's what I am. I'm Bonnie Rockwaller and you're supposed to worship at my feet."

The tears were starting to run down her face, carrying some of her mascara with them. "Crap, I'm babbling." She went to the small vanity she crammed into a corner and took some tissues to wipe the running makeup off her face.

"I didn't know." He said finally. Actually, he didn't even know why he said that, but it sounded right at the moment. "Look, Bonnie, I don't exactly know what I'm doing here. This hasn't ever happened to me before. I'm sort of in uncharted territory here. The last time I had anything even resembling a girlfriend I thought the girl was going to give me cooties."

"Girlfriend?" A little fire crept back into her eyes. "You think what you and me did, what we did once make me your girlfriend?"

"No!" He shot back, a little more angrily than he meant to. The last thing he wanted to do was get irritated, but that's what was happening. A lot of things irritated him, but he was trying something completely alien to his existence, and he was doing it with a woman who was much more than he ever thought he might have a chance with. "I just thought, maybe, I don't know, we could try going on an honest to goodness date. See if there's anything there…anything except, well, except that one night."

"If that's what you wanted, then why didn't you pick up the phone and call? Why didn't you answer when I tried calling you? Why did your brother have to be the one to call back? Why not you?"

"I honestly don't know. Geez. Usually when a girl calls me it's because she's just wanting to look at my class notes or something. I've never had a girl call me because we…"

"Come out and say it, Mervin. We had sex. I wouldn't dignify it by calling it making love. It was just sex. Don't be embarrassed, cause there's nobody else in the room and I'm the one who saw you naked. So you were frightened. What the heck was there to be frightened of? That's not the impression I got when you kissed me…when you started taking my top off."

Mervin wrapped his arms around his head. "It doesn't make sense to me. I just kinda did and you...let me. I thought you liked it."

Bonnie dried her cheeks again with the tissue. "That's cause I did. When you touched me I wanted you to. When you kissed me, it was good. Hell, everything that night was good, which surprised me, cause I just don't do that. I felt like I was somebody else there for a moment, but I was glad I did."

"Look, Bonnie…I don't know what to tell you."

"How about you're sorry?"

"Okay, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I'm such an idiot. I'm sorry if I was a complete klutz. I'm sorry I don't know how to talk to girls on the phone. God knows I spend enough time talking on the damned things. Herman says he's going to have to pry it off my head one of these days because it's rooted there. My little brothers think I talk to more people on my phone than I do in real like, but every time I picked up my phone and thought about talking to you I just froze up."

"You've got more brothers?" She smiled a little bit, wondering what that might be like. With four women and one man in the home she grew up in, it became like her father didn't even count as a male.

"I've got two little brothers. They're twins. I've got an older sister too, but I haven't seen her in a couple years. In person, that is."

"Humph. Wish I could go a couple years without my older sisters. What's your sister like?"

"She's a cranky loudmouth and prone to excessive violence. She's bitter, sarcastic. Mean spirited. Herman thinks deep down she's really still a good person, but she never calls any more. She forgets my birthday. Heck, she barely even spoke to me the last time I saw her. Spent most of her time yapping with that girl from Colorado she said she hates."

Mervin looked at the bundle of flowers still sitting on the bed. "Uh, you think we should find something to put those in?"

Bonnie went over and picked them up. Brick had so rarely given her flowers. The second time they broke up, he gave her a single rose. The big lug was trying to be romantic, though it didn't quite come off that way. "I really don't think I've got anything."

"Uh, I could take you to Smarty Mart and we could pick up a vase for it. Maybe we could go get some pizza somewhere while we're out. There's a place nearby that does some pretty good deep dish."

Bonnie smiled very slightly. "My makeup's all screwed up now."

"So, fix it. Then again, we're talking about going to a Smarty Mart for a cheap vase. I don't think you're gonna run into model agency scouts from Milan in there."

She actually laughed that time. "I don't think so. For starters, wild horses couldn't get me into a Smarty Mart. I don't care what they're selling. I won't even go in a Bullseye store for that matter."

Mervin relaxed just slightly, glad they had veered off the path of talking about why they hadn't hooked up over the last week. It was as if neither of them knew exactly what had happened over that time. "Why not? It's just stuff."

"It's complicated. I used to rag on Kim all the…"

He held up his hands. "Okay, first off, I don't know who this Kim person is you keep bringing up, but hey, you're what? Fifteen hundred miles away from her right now? Give her a rest. She's not going to pop up here and get into your life. You don't have to compete with her any more."

Bonnie harrumphed, sitting down hard on the edge of the bed. "Oh, I bet you've heard of her. Everyone's heard of the great Kim Possible."

"Whoa! Hold the phone here. You mean all this time you've been talking about her?"

She rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Yes, it's her. Miss perfect princess who everybody loves."

"More like a bossy pain-in-the-ass if you ask me." He muttered.

"What did you say?"

"Uh, oh, I'm sure she's a nice person if you get to know her and all. Just kinda got that impression."

"No, that's not what I meant. You think she's a pain? Usually the media just…wait a second. Do you know her?"

Mervin bit his lower lip, trying to think fast. "Uh, well, that little shrimpy guy she hung out with…"

"Ron isn't so shrimpy." She said flatly.

"Yeah, that's his name. The two of them showed up in Herman's restaurant one time. I recognized him first because his picture is in the company manual. Something to do about special procedures Herman's supposed to implement if he showed up."

"Freakin' it's a small world after all." She said. "Yeah, I guess Ron would freak out over your brother's place. He lives on Bueno Nacho. Heck, he sort of works for them now. He's on that Naco commercial."

"Huh. Haven't seen that, but then the locations here don't sell the Naco. Come to think of it, he did go on and on about that."

"He's entitled. He invented it."

"Wow. Okay, so we scratch Smarty Mart." He looked at his watch. "Mall doesn't close for an hour and a half yet. Maybe we could score something there and maybe hit the food court."

"Mervin."

"What?"

"Quit trying so hard. If we're going to go on a date, we're going to plan it. You're going to come over here and pick me up, I'm going to be wearing a nice dress and we're going out on a real, bonafide date. We're not just going to go someplace and eat hot dogs with some freaky pickles on it or something. Maybe later we can go on a date like that, but not the first one. You've got to do better than that."

"Yeah, but aren't you hungry tonight?"

"I just came from the caf."

"The calf? What the heck?"

"The cafeteria. Let's just say after eating that crap I'm not exactly hungry any more."

"Okay, so you don't want to go get some dinner, you won't go on a date with me…"

"Uh, Mervin…I just told you how we're going on a date. Not turning you down. So far all you've done is talk about going to the mall or eating out. You haven't even asked me out."

"Okay, so, would you like to go on a date? A real date…with me?"

She smiled. It was something he had the strongest feeling happened quite rarely, for it actually lit up the whole room, though that really wasn't hard in the small space. "I'd love to. How about this coming Friday night?"

"Sure. Where would you like to go?"

"Well, I'll leave that up to you. After all, you're the home-town boy. Just remember. I'm special and you have to treat me accordingly."

"Okay, Friday it is. So, I'll see you then?"

She got up from her seat on the bed and crossed the room, leaning down and kissing him gently on the lips. "I wasn't exactly throwing you out tonight. Just cause I don't want to go out doesn't mean I want to sit in here all by myself.

Bonnie straddled his lap, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. He was so much thinner than she was used to, but there was something about being able to put her arms all the way around him. He was still muscular, in a lean, well defined sort of way. After so many years of lusting after hulkish brutes like Brick, she found she actually preferred this.

They didn't actually make it to the bed, at least at first. Instead they proved that her chair was indeed very well put together.

* * *

Bonnie Rockwaller (and all Kim Possible Characters) © Disney 


	7. Old Friend

**Redeemable: Part 7 – Old Friend**

* * *

For the first time in recent memory, Bonnie felt she was truly happy. Sure, there were fleeting moments when she could feel that, but it never seemed to last. Something she had done or something somebody around her had done would always bring her crashing back down into self-loathing and depression.

Instead she had the best prospect for a new boyfriend than she had since she broke up with Brick (it felt better to think of it that way rather than outright admitting that he dumped her.) It wasn't the fun they had together that made her think that way either. It just seemed like the right thing to do at the time, and considering how _much_ fun it had been, that estimation had proven correct. It worried her a little how casual she had been about it, but kept telling herself it was because there was something real between them. Her only regret about Sunday afternoon was never going out and finding something to put the roses in, as they died pretty quickly left out.

The real test would come Friday night. He had already crossed the smaller hurdle of calling her the next day. She burned up the whole battery and a good chunk of her minutes just talking to him about nothing. Well, not just nothing. Somehow, listening to somebody ramble on and on about Kim and then being able to respond in kind felt good. In fact, is somehow released some of the power her former rival still held over her. The more they went on and on, the pettier those old differences sounded. Pretty quickly both of them were spent on the issue and moved on to more forgettable things to talk about. She was left feeling she had just had a really good time doing nothing more than lying alone on her bed with her cell phone plastered to her ear. Mervin was perhaps the first guy she had ever done that with. He was certainly a great deal smarter than her…former…boyfriend.

The date would be something else. It was to be planned, prepared for and he was going to have to treat her like a queen. What had happened their last two meetings wasn't necessarily part of the deal, though it wasn't ruled out or forbidden. After all, Bonnie Rockwaller wasn't a slut and she enjoyed being pampered other ways.

As for the present, she had other ways of pampering herself. Her Wednesday afternoon class had been canceled, so she took the train across town to retrieve her car in order to do some driving. Public transportation was driving her batty, so she was going to have to hit her father up for some more money in order to keep her car closer to campus.

_Stupid rule against resident Freshmen parking on campus!_

The other big problem with taking the train was that the stops were never as close as she would like to her destination. The long-term storage lot was at least half a mile or walking in the crowded city, if she didn't manage to get lost in the process. So far she hadn't been back to the lot since she dropped her car off the day she moved onto campus. That was all going to stop when she was a sophomore. For one, she would definitely force her parents to get her an apartment near the campus rather than spend one more year living in those nasty dorms. There seemed little chance she would luck out again and get a single. After having her own room most of her life, she was most def not ready for a roommate. Her only recent experience of actually sharing a room like that had been the Senior Ski Trip.

That really ended badly. Much as she despised Kim, she really screwed up by going through her things. That wasn't called for, by any stretch of the imagination. So what if she was taking the pill? Turned out it was for other reasons than the most obvious one, so Bonnie was the one with egg on her face. What she thought was a weapon ended up being a double-edged sword, hurting both of them.

Then there was that suit. What on Earth possessed her to steal it? Was she going to wear it and pretend she was Kim Possible? Why didn't she just put it back instead of stuffing it into another former friends bag?

She put those questions back out of her mind as she rounded the last corner before reaching the entrance of the lot. She could already see her baby blue two thousand six convertible Mustang. They even parked it under a tree so it wouldn't be quite so hot in the late summer sun.

Bonnie was distinctly less happy when she got closer to her most prized possession. Sure, a true might provide shade, but it also provided a roost for hundreds of birds. The attendant just shrugged, totally disregarding the fact she just verbally ripped his head off. They parked it where there was space. They kept the thieves out, not the birds. If she wanted, she could pay double and have it parked in a deck.

If her eyes had been lasers she would have sliced the guy clean in two, but alas, all she could do was glare daggers at him as she signed her car out. As it was, she barely had time to take it to a do-it yourself car-wash. She couldn't take it through drive through because of the rag top.

At least it sounded good once she got out on the expressway and opened it up. The V8 engine and the dual pipe, dual outlet mufflers had that signature pony car growl. Putting the top down she got into the fast lane, running with the traffic so she would have less chance of being stopped for speeding.

Her car still needed some hand detailing. Maybe when she saw Mervin's house she could come over, hook up a hose and get him to help her washing it. That way she could wear that little red bikini she had in the bottom drawer of her dresser. She was sure he (and every other straight male in the vicinity) would appreciate that view.

The inner belt expressway was built on an elevated platform, so she could see over most of the warehouses in the dock district below her. The view of the lake was spectacular. Lake Middleton back home was no slouch as far as a man-made mountain reservoir was concerned, but the great lakes looked more like an ocean to her.

For perhaps the first time she noticed the tower out in the middle of the bay. Actually, it looked more like some sort of modernistic sculpture than a building. It was tall and narrow and for some odd reason spelled the word "Go." Did Go City have some sort of collective inferiority complex that they had to put it's name out on the lake in the form or a two hundred foot concrete tower?

She didn't have too long to ponder that fact. The exit for O'Neil International Airport loomed ahead, so she made her way over to the right lane. She didn't want to chance getting lost off the expressway if she missed the turn. A pretty, petite woman in a sports car lost in a bad neighborhood was just…not something she wanted to experience. She had yet to join a local dojo, but she was still smart enough to know being a black belt in Karate didn't mean squat against firearms.

Bonnie was quite surprised when she got the call. She hadn't spoken to her old friend much in almost a year. At the start of her senior year in high school there was a sort of schism in the ranks of the cheer squad. Some of her friends found themselves in the uncomfortable position of taking sides, and for the most part, they had gone over to Kim. In the end she really couldn't blame them, but the hurt was there. Maybe now that the pain had dulled there was a chance of patching things up. She certainly hoped so. This one person had once been her best friend and had been by her side since elementary school.

There was no mistaking her once she pulled into the pickup lanes in front of the huge complex. Even from a distance she could pick up the platinum blonde hair and as she got closer, she could even see her luminous blue eyes. Ever since she could remember she envied Tara. In her opinion, the sweet girl was in fact the most beautiful girl in the whole school, though she would never, ever admit that.

She only had one bag, so she quickly threw it in the back seat and hopped into the car with her old girlfriend.

"Okay, Bonnie, I want you to tell me everything!"

"Everything? About what? School sucks, the classes are crowded and the food in the caf really stinks. I mean literally, it smells bad."

"That's not what I mean. I want you to spill about this new guy."

"Say what? I didn't even mention him." She was utterly surprised. For a change, Tara had done most of the talking during their short phone conversation the day before.

"Oh, come on. I've known you long enough to know how you sound when you're into some guy, and you just confirmed it." Tara giggled as the car sped back onto the expressway.

"I did what?"

"You said 'him.' If you didn't have some hottie on the line you wouldn't have said that."

Bonnie glanced over at the bubbly blonde. Did she underestimate her? Or was that school in Kentucky actually teaching her the ins and outs of gossip?

"Come on, what's he like? Is he a big hunk like Brick, or maybe like…Josh?" She got a faraway look in her eyes thinking about her boyfriend back home in the Tri-City.

"Well, he's kinda good looking. Definitely built more like Josh, maybe a little thinner. Taller."

"Aaaand?"

The look Tara shot her surprised her, especially coming from one of the more notable 'wait for the wedding night' types she knew. She guessed that didn't exclude talking about it.

"We, uh, haven't been out on a date yet. He's taking me out this Friday, though."

"Uh huh." She replied. Bonnie immediately realized that her old friend was quite capable of reading between the lines. "So, what's his name?"

"Well, heh, it's kind of a funny name. Mervin."

"Does Merv kiss good?"

"Yes, and he hates being called Merv. He's one of those guys who doesn't like nicknames."

"Oh? So I take it you haven't told him your full name yet, have you?"

"Tara, as far as I'm concerned, Bonnie is my proper name. If I had the time or the money I'd get a lawyer and get it changed legally. It's bad enough when my Mom or Stoppable calls me Bon-Bon. If any more people knew it was Bonne Delia, I'd just die."

"Humph. I think that's a pretty name. That's what it means, doesn't it?"

"Yeah. Still don't like it." She turned her attention back to her driving, turning down a ramp that would take them to Lake-Land Mall. Bonnie had already been there a couple times, though the experience kind of left her wanting. For a building twice the size of the mall back home, it seemed to have almost all the same stores, just in a different order; _Club Banana, Abyss, Victoria's Circuits, Alexandria's Confession, Body and Bath Factory_. She was starting to wonder if that was true of every mall in the country.

After driving at close to eighty miles per hour on the freeway, the ground level traffic seemed sluggish and frustrating. Bonnie had to fight the urge to lean on her horn as she pulled up to yet another backup. Tara was only going to be there for the evening, before boarding an overnight train to Denver, where Josh Mankey would be waiting to drive her back to Upperton for a couple days.

"Aw, come on! How can traffic be this backed up on an eight lane road?" Bonnie fumed. She kept staring straight ahead, trying to figure out what was going on, at least until Tara gasped.

She almost turned her head as a dark figure jumped into the tiny back seat of her car. Any further thoughts of looking at the intruder were swept away as the barrel of a pistol pressed against the side of her head.

"Drive, girl." He ordered.

* * *

Bonnie Rockwaller (and all Kim Possible Characters) © Disney 


	8. Superheroes

**Redeemable: Part VIII – Superheroes **

* * *

"Drive, girl!"

For a moment she could not move. The only thing in her world was the cold steel of an automatic pistol being jammed up against her scalp. Thankfully Tara wasn't screaming, though the blonde was well on her way to hyperventilating.

"What, are you some kind of blonde too? Put the damned car in drive and go!"

Not knowing what else to do, she complied. Actually, the car was an automatic, with the smaller engine, but it still spun out the wheels as she jammed on the gas. With nowhere else to go, she turned the wheel and sent it over the median separating the lanes. That was just enough to break Tara out of her trance.

She let out a scream that was well out of proportion to her tiny frame.

Bonnie felt the gun pull away from her head. "Shut up! Just shut the hell up!" Out of the corner of her eye she could see the weapon, pointed this time at her friend. It was all she could do to concentrate on driving. There had been self-defense classes she had taken in addition to all her ballet and karate training, but here with the real thing actually happening, the only thing she could recall was to simply do what the man was saying.

What was going on? Was this somehow related to what was tying up the traffic jam that was rapidly receding behind them? Other cars were starting to follow suit, most likely assuming she was simply frustrated and was trying to get around the foul-up. Hadn't anyone seen what was actually happening?

She risked a look in the rear-view mirror, but it wasn't the carjacker that commanded her attention. Something large was flying over the cars behind them. It landed in the road not a hundred feet back. In that instant she realized it was a man, a very large man dressed in black and blue. Not only that, but he was actually glowing!

The carjacker cursed. "Floor it, girl." He jammed the gun against her neck. Some of her training came back to her, but she found that between controlling the car and trying to keep an eye on the massive man who just leaped right over maybe a hundred cars she couldn't figure out a way to use any of that. Not knowing anything else she could do, she jammed her foot down on the accelerator. Her car barely side-swiped a minivan as they sped off.

That seemed to be enough to get the bulky man's attention. He leaped up into the air again, looking more like a great big blue and black ball bouncing along the surface roads. He landed in their wake once more before leaping again.

"Turn now!" the desperate man howled. She spun the wheel, sending them into a sideways skid, almost sending them completely out of control. She sideswiped another car, making her think more of beating the holy crap out of the guy for forcing her to damage her car than anything else.

How could this be happening to her? It was broad daylight and they weren't in the 'bad' section of the city. This sort of thing happened to the likes of Possible and her bunch, not to her. No, that didn't happen to her. She would have made this creep eat his gun by now!

The big man landed right behind them once more as she regained control and shot down an empty side street between some buildings. He was only in view a moment before leaping again. Somehow he was actually keeping pace with a car that was going over seventy miles per hour.

She was forced to turn hard again to avoid plowing into a building as the side road abruptly ended on another major road. Another surprised motorist was forced to slam on their brakes, causing at least two more cars to plow into them. All she could do was feel sorry for them.

The blue jumper appeared once more, this time just in front of them and to the left. She turned the wheel and skidded to the right, avoiding another car and a motorcycle. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the blue man throw something.

Whatever it was, it actually hit her. "Hey!" She screamed. "I'm the one being kidnapped here!"

She wasn't hurt. The object somehow latched onto her top for an instant. Moments later there was a flash of purple light and she screamed once more. It felt like the thing on her shoulder suddenly shot upwards and all she could do was jam on the brakes to avoid another backup.

The car skidded sideways, only just remaining upright as it did so. There was nowhere left to go.

Tara put a hand on Bonnie's shoulder and shook her slightly, pointing with her free hand. Not quite able to catch her breath, she suddenly realized the gun was no longer being held to her. With infinite slowness she turned around and looked.

The carjacker was no longer in her Mustang. Instead he was about twenty feet away on the pavement. A tall, thin man with purple hair was holding him down. He was dressed in a costume just like the big blue man, but all in purple and black. Out of nowhere two smaller men in similar red costumes appeared. Then there were four of them, then eight. They all piled onto the gunman, holding him fast to the asphalt.

The large man in blue appeared, picking something up off the pavement near the strange dog-pile. Bonnie finally realized it was the gun that moments before had threatened to take her life if she didn't do what the man told her. He held it up at chest level and crushed it in his hand like it was made of tin foil.

That was when she realized the sirens were wailing all around her. Dozens of police cars screeched to a halt, cops pouring out of them. It all seemed like it was happening in a dream. She could hear them asking if she was okay, but she couldn't take her eyes off the strange sight.

Slowly the tall man in purple got up and dusted himself off. That's when she finally got a good look at him. He was wearing some kind of cowl, masking his eyes, with only his lower face showing and a messy mop of purple hair above it. His skin wasn't normal either. At first glance it simply looked pale, but upon closer inspection it was actually a very light violet color.

Then she locked eyes with him. His eyes were purple too.

Her mouth hung open. Mask or no she had no doubt who she was looking at. Twice she had spent the better part of the night looking into those eyes. The skin and hair color she couldn't reconcile, but that didn't matter.

"Mervin?"

A large hand came to rest on her shoulder. She turned to look at the large man in blue who had come up to her car. The police simply parted to let him through, as if his presence was nothing special.

"Are you okay, Miss?"

Her mouth remained open, silently working up and down just a bit. The man she was looking at had bright blue hair and his body was faintly glowing, but she knew she was looking at Mervin's older brother, the manager of the huge Bueno Nacho her suitor had taken her to.

She looked away from him, back to Mervin, who suddenly wasn't looking her in the eye. Her mouth snapped shut and anger flared in her. Turning back to his brother she finally asked. "Okay, Herman, Henry, whatever your name is. What the hell is going on?"

"Miss, my name is Hego. That is Mego and they are Wego." He pointed over to the smaller men in red. Oddly, there were now only two of them visible as the police had the gunman in custody. If you're unhurt, then it is best you speak to these officers now."

"Uh, sure." She tried opening her door, but found it was jammed shut.

"Bonnie?" Tara asked as she climbed over her own damaged door.

Bonnie followed suit. She nodded toward Mego, who by then had his back to them. "Tara, remember the guy I told you about, the one who's supposed to be taking me out Friday night? That's him."

Tara was visibly shaken, but she still had enough poise to be startled by that. She took a long look at the guy. He wasn't anything like what she would have expected her old friend to have a relationship with. In the past, Bonnie was much more likely to go after the big blue guy over the tall, thin, clearly non-athletic type dressed head to toe in black and purple.

Still ignoring the policemen, Bonnie walked up to Mervin, or Mego as his brother had called him. She suddenly realized he was the one who had been in the car, and that he was the one who somehow forced the gunman out and away from them. She didn't know how, but he had been only about three inches tall when he landed on her shoulder, then he was suddenly his normal height.

He smiled sheepishly as she came up to him. "Mervin?"

"Names Mego, Ma'am."

"Come off it, Mervin, I know it's you. That stupid getup isn't fooling anyone."

"Shhhhh. Listen, Bonnie, it's called a secret identity. Yeah, there's a few folks who know about it, but I don't go advertising it everywhere. Listen, go talk to the cops. I'll come by your place as soon as all this is wrapped up."

"No, Mervin…Mego, whatever. I want to know just what the hell is going on."

"Not here, not now, okay. Look, the TV crews will be here any moment, so let me do my job. I promise you, I'll be over as soon as I can. Just talk to the cops, get a ride back to campus. Please." Hesitantly he turned his back to her, talking to one of the guys in red. Somehow she understood they were his brothers as well. There wasn't any kind of resemblance, except the two crimson clad boys, but he had mentioned they were all adopted.

Reluctantly she returned to her car and gave a statement. One of the policemen gave the vehicle a cursory inspection, and finding that even though they didn't work terribly well, the doors still functioned, after a fashion. It took almost an hour, with all sorts of measurements being taken and gray fingerprint powder getting everywhere, but she was finally allowed to drive away.

It was a fight, but she got the top put back up when she parked it at a grocery store walking distance from the campus. She took about five steps from the car when her legs gave out beneath her. She collapsed to the pavement, throwing up what little was in her stomach. Tara was instantly at her side, doing her best to console her, though she was still shaking slightly herself.

"Come one, Bonnie. Let's get you back to your room and clean you up. You want me to call your folks?"

She held up her hand. "No. I don't want to breath a word of this to them. Last thing I need right now is for Mother to get some crazy notion in her head to bring me back there. I'm not doing that."

Bonnie was a little wobbly on her feet, but Tara was able to help her as the two young women made their way back to the campus.

* * *

Bonnie Rockwaller (and all Kim Possible Characters) © Disney 


	9. Explanations

**Redeemable: Part IX**

* * *

Tara sat on the tiny, lumpy bed waiting for her friend to come back from the bathroom. She was quite appalled at what she saw in the place. Bonnie kept a neat and orderly room, and she had done her best to decorate it in the manner she had her bedroom back home, but there was only so much that could be done to disguise the fact it was merely a closet sized room with painted cinderblock walls and a tiny window that didn't even open because it was some five stories above the ground.

She had been going to school at a tiny Baptist college for women in Kentucky. The dorms there were all located in converted Victorian houses. She had to share her room with another Freshman, but the room itself was bright and roomy. There was another big difference between the simplistic concrete and steel tower and the aging wooden structure she currently lived in.

Bonnie's dorm was co-ed.

A lot of people thought Tara was all sweetness and innocence, and in that one particular way, she was. Some had come to the conclusion she was flighty during her sophomore and junior years at Middleton High School, dating a fair number of boys instead of settling down with just one. The real reason wasn't any kind of indecision on her part, it was the fact she did not want to get into a deeply committed relationship mainly because she didn't want to feel obligated to take it to the next level. For her that 'next level' was something that would only come on her wedding day.

That did not mean in the least she didn't think about it and long for it. It was just a personal decision she had made in keeping with her personal values. It wasn't until her Senior year when she finally started 'going steady' with Josh Mankey that she realized all the other things she was missing out on. One of those things was love. Josh wasn't as innocent as she was, but he was more than willing to honor her morals once he realized how he felt for her in turn.

Men were simply not allowed in her dorm. In fact, the only men who were supposed to be on campus at all were faculty and staff. That meant there was very little reason for Josh to come down to her school to see her. There were even rules about meeting boys in hotel rooms and such, so the only way she was going to be with him during the semester was to actually go home during the break. The school would not know she was actually staying in the spare room of his apartment in Upperton. What they didn't know would not hurt them.

Bonnie came back into the room, drying her face, her hair held back by a rolled up bandana. She locked eyes with her friend for a moment, then sat down heavily on the desk chair.

"I can't believe you are actually dating a superhero." Tara almost squealed.

A growl escaped Bonnie's lips. "This is all Possible's fault somehow. I just know it. It's like that girl is a magnet for trouble."

Tara was completely confused. "What does Kim have to do with these people? It's just a coincidence."

"I don't know. It just seems that way. I'm willing to bet they know each other too. You saw their outfits, didn't you. I know I've seen them somewhere before, I just can't put my finger on it."

"That was so romantic, him appearing in the car and throwing the bad guy out like that." She clasped her hands between her knees, looking up at the ceiling and grinning.

"Oh, puh-leese, Tara. He's been pulling the wool over my eyes."

Tara scowled. "Uh, don't they always have a secret identity or something? You said yourself you've only been going out with him a couple weeks."

"Not really going out. I think the term would be 'seeing.' We weren't even going out on a real, official date until Friday night. Guess that's out now."

"Why? A guy you happen to like actually saves your life, and mine for that matter. Remind me to give him a really nice hug when he gets here."

"If he gets here. Jerk didn't even call me after the first night. I had to track him down and I still don't know where he lives."

"First night?" Tara asked, wrinkling her nose slightly.

"Yes, Tara, I slept with him. Not everybody is a little virgin princess like you and Possible."

"But, you haven't even been on a real date. I mean, you were with Brick a couple years and you never…"

"No, I never did with Brick. Hell, I don't even know what came over me. Mervin's not even that good looking, it's just, well…how do I even explain this. We started off talking, then we were kissing, then we were, you know."

"Actually, I think I understand it better than you know. Bonnie, why did you wait? You never seemed to be anywhere near as religious as I am, and you were dating one of the hottest guys in the school."

"You thought Brick was hot?"

"Hello, Earth to Bonnie. Yes Brick was hot. He's also sweet and kind and totally not my type, but still hot."

"Well, okay. It's just…I looked at my sisters and every time I thought of being with Brick all I could see was them and the way they were with their boyfriends. I kept thinking 'what sluts' and I didn't want to be like that. The joke was on me, cause I think that's one of the reasons he eventually dumped me." She stopped, noticing her friend cocking her head at her. "Yes, I know the main reason. I was a full-on bitch and he got tired of it, but a big part of it was that I wasn't giving it up to him. I thought about maybe Junior Prom, but I got so pissed off that night and he ended up leaving with that little black girl from Club Banana who hovered around Kim all the time."

"Monique, Monique Jenkins." Tara supplied.

"Yeah, that's her name. Just always figured she was trying to ride K's coattails to popularity or something. That always happens with popular girls."

"Oh?" Tara looked slightly hurt.

It suddenly dawned on Bonnie what that sounded like. "I'm not talking about you, Tara. We were tight since grade school. I'm talking about people who glom on later, like that Foster girl who kept hanging around me Senior year. The one who stole Kim's wonder-suit-thingy."

That seemed to mollify her for the moment. "What I'm getting at, though. Now, from what I saw, this Mervin wasn't all that bad looking. In fact he's kind of cute. he is built a little like Josh, though he's taller. I don't know if I could go for the violet skin, but hey."

"He doesn't really have violet skin. Well, he didn't when…well, the only thing I saw that was purple was his eyes."

"Anyway, remember how you felt about Ron. Heck, I felt the same way at one point, and he's not the biggest looker in the whole world."

"Ron was…different. Now I just don't know how much of that was me actually liking him, and how much of it was me just wanting to get back at Kim by taking him."

Tara raised an eyebrow. She knew Bonnie too well not to know there was a lot more to what she felt about Ron than that. "At any rate, I think there might have been something more at work than just how he looks. You said you spent the day talking to him. Maybe there's something there, some kind of spark that's hard to explain in words." She leaned a little closer to her friend and whispered. "So, how is he?"

"Tara!"

The buxom blonde just smiled devilishly at her friend. "Bonnie, I'm not _that_ innocent."

Bonnie blushed very slightly, though the faint color might have had more to do with her deep tan. "I'm not…experienced enough to judge, but compared to those two other guys…" She shot a dark look at Tara in response to another sly glance. "Let's just say I enjoyed it. A lot."

"Enjoyed what?" Asked another voice from the open door.

Mervin was leaning against the door jamb. The strange purple and black jumpsuit was gone, replaced with a black t-shirt and blue jeans. His skin was back to normal looking, as was his hair. He was also wearing a self-satisfied smirk, giving Bonnie the impression he had heard more of the conversation than she was comfortable with.

"I'd better go down to the lobby." Tara said softly, getting up from her seat on the bed.

"Sit tight, T. If there is something more at work like you think, I sure don't want that going on right now."

The platinum blonde simply nodded, sitting back down.

Bonnie crossed her legs and her arms, sitting back in the chair. "So, Mervin, or do I call you Mego?"

"Out of uniform, I'm just Mervin." He said, the smirk not fading in the least.

"Just what in the hell was that we saw today?"

He stood up straight, Tara noting just how tall he really was. Actually, he was just a shade over six feet, but his lean frame made him look even taller in proportion.

"That was me and my brothers doing our job. I didn't realize that was you until Hego threw me into your car."

"Threw you? What the heck are you talking about?"

He turned and looked over his shoulder. There wasn't anyone in sight, but a few other doors down the hall were open and voices could be heard. He took a step inside and quietly shut the door.

"Okay, I'm not supposed to do this here, but I do think I owe you some kind of explanation. There are a few people here on campus that know about this, but for the most part, it's supposed to be a secret." He touched a hidden control on his watch and he seemed to flicker. An instant later he had changed.

The difference was only slight. He was still Mervin Godfrey, but his skin and hair had changed color to what they had seen in the street earlier that day. He was no longer just pale, but a very light violet. His hair was a purplish maroon, almost the color of wine.

"This is what I really look like." He said with a sigh. "For some reason, when we all got our powers, Herman and the twins kept their normal skin color, but me and my sister, we changed. I've got what we call our 'Go Team Glow.' I don't pretend to understand it, but the doctors who studied us after the accident said we were all bathed in some kind of mutagenic radiation. It's in every cell of my body, and as I understand it, every cell, even my hair glows just slightly with it, making me look…purple."

"What else does it do?" Tara asked. Bonnie just sat there glaring at her paramour.

"This." His whole body glowed bright purple for a moment. Then he simply disappeared.

Both women yelped, jumping back in their seats. Then a tiny voice from the floor caught their attention.

Mervin was still standing just inside the door, only he was only about six inches tall. He glowed again and shrank even further, until he was only about an inch. His body lit up once more and he returned to his normal size.

"That's how Herman threw me. It's a move we came up with for a situation like that. He could have grabbed the guy, but he's a little on the clumsy side, so he was afraid he might have smashed your car worse than it was. He's always riding me about how little use my power is, but he's wrong. Shrinking is a great power. You're living proof."

"Can you get bigger?" Tara asked, still staring wide-eyed at the violet man.

"No." he grumped. "This is it. I can only get smaller than my base size." He shrank again, down to about three feet tall, then popped back up to normal again.

Bonnie's eyes suddenly narrowed. "So that's how you got in here! Nobody let you in and I didn't leave my door open. You shrank down and crawled in through a hole."

He shook his head. "No. Well, yeah, that's how I got in the building, but you did leave your door unlocked. Not a good idea in a city like this, but I could have done that if I had to." He touched the control on his watch again, resuming his 'normal' appearance.

"What's that?" Bonnie asked, pointing at his timepiece.

"It's a holographic projector. Herman uses one to make his hair look black when he's trying to look normal. The twins don't bother, since they were always red-heads." He leaned back against the door, crossing his arms and his legs. Tara noticed just how much he seemed to be mirroring Bonnie, who was still sitting the same way. They were suddenly closed up to each other, their body language suggesting they were protecting their personal space.

"Okay, I shrink. Herman is super-strong and the twins can make duplicates of themselves, though only when they're together. We've even had some people claim there's actually one Wego in reality, but I've known them since they were adopted as babies. They're real twins."

"What about your sister?" Bonnie asked. "You said your sister has the powers too."

"I don't want to talk about her. She's not on the team any more and I haven't heard from her in several years. She doesn't call, she doesn't visit, she doesn't remember my birthday…" He unwrapped his arms and took a step toward Bonnie. "I kind of freaked out when I realized it was you. Enough about me, are you okay? I mean, that guy was really dangerous. He just held up a bank and we were trying to capture him when he jumped in your car. He didn't hurt you or anything."

"I'm just fine." Bonnie said coldly, not bringing up the fact she had thrown up once what had happened actually hit her. He took another step toward her and she held up her hand. "Look, Mervin, I don't know if I can deal with this. You kept this from me."

He retreated to the door once more. "I'm sorry. I just didn't know you all that well yet. I was going to tell you when we go out Friday. Uh, are we still on for that."

"I don't know. I just don't know, okay. I thought for once in my life I was done with all the freaky things once I got away from Possible."

"Kim Possible? You know her?"

"Doy. I am from Middleton. I've been dealing with her smug attitude and her little boyfriend ever since Junior High."

"Boyfriend? You mean the little blonde guy? He actually still puts up with her?"

"They're engaged now." Tara supplied, confirming what Bonnie had guessed they were up to back in the summer.

"Wow. The only other person I've ever met that was as bossy as she is, is my older brother."

"So now you know how I know her, how the heck do you know her?"

He re-crossed his arms. "A few years ago she came here with that guy she's marrying. I don't think they were together then, but somehow she got between Hego and Aviarius…"

"Aviarius? Where have I heard that name?"

Tara reached across and touched her arm. "I think he's the father of that guy who tried to kidnap Kim. Remember, that blonde boy you went out with once that got arrested?"

"Cary?" Bonnie's face curled up in disgust. As much dislike as she once held for Kim Possible, she really felt sorry for her when the teen turned out to be a super-villain called Carrion. If Aviarius was his father…

"Anyway, the upshot was that Kim Possible got Hego's powers temporarily, so we all worked together to bring him in and restore all our powers."

Bonnie shook her head, then buried it in her hands. "Fifteen hundred miles away and I still end up involved with Possible. How does this happen to me?"

"Hey, it's not like we've kept in touch all that much. Herman has run into them a couple of times, but that's had more to do with Bueno Nacho than Team Go."

"Team Go? Is that what you call yourselves? You couldn't think of anything better than that?"

"Well, We're Mego, Hego and the Wegos. Kinda works if you ask me. Herman suggested the Rainbow team once, but Sherry pretty much shot that down."

Tara gasped. The other two turned to face her. "I just got it. His sister has powers…I was wondering where I'd seen their uniforms before."

"What are you babbling about?" Bonnie asked.

"Shego! That woman in green Kim has been fighting all these years. The one that was arrested the night of the Diablos!"

Bonnie's mouth dropped open and she turned to look Mervin in the eyes. He simply nodded. "That's her. She works with this guy named Drakken who keeps trying to take over the world, if you're wondering why I don't like talking about her. Herman keeps thinking she might change back to good, but I sure don't think so."

He held out his hand toward Bonnie. She eyed it as if it were holding a poisonous reptile. "Look, I want you to come with me. I've got something to show you."

"Look, Mervin, I don't know if I can even trust you."

He exaggerated holding his hand out again. "Please. I want to show you just how much you can trust me. You wanted to know where I lived, so I think it's time to take you to the Go Tower."

Suspiciously she took his hand. The moment her flesh touched his the times they had spent together rushed back to her mind. It was almost as if some kind of spark passed between them, something she could not articulate, but it was definitely there.

"What about Tara?"

"Uh, this is just for you, if you don't mind, Miss?"

"Matthews. It's fine, Bonnie. I'll just wait here for you. I need to call Josh anyway. Call me if you need me, I'll be right here."

Nodding silently, she let herself be led away, the thoughts that she both wanted to slap the young man and to wrap her arms tightly around him clashing in her mind.

* * *

Bonnie Rockwaller (and all Kim Possible Characters) © Disney 


	10. At First Sight?

**Redeemable: Part X – At First Sight?**

* * *

Tara rolled over on the bed, kicking her feet back and forth, roughly in time with her mouth. Every so often she would check the battery meter on her cell phone, they go right back to chattering away on it, twirling her wavy blonde hair with her free hand.

"Oh, hang on, Hope, call waiting." She pressed the button and sang into the phone, "Hel-lo!"

Rolling off the bed, she shot to her feet "Joshie! Hey…no, my flight doesn't leave until morning. You can pick me up around three…no…I'm at Bonnie's right now…no, she's not here, she went somewhere with her boyfriend…yes, I said boyfriend, and you're not going to believe this…no Josh." A scowl crossed her usually pretty features. "It's not half the football team. He's in law enforcement, kinda-sorta…well, he's, uh, cute. Really, really tall, well, taller than you…hang on, I've gotta say bye to Hope before my battery dies…of course I have a charger with me, I'm not _that_ blonde…hang on." She beeped back to Hope. "Sweetie, It's Josh, hate to cut and run, but boyfriend trumps girlfriend…sure, love ya, girl…Josh? Yeah…so, what's the plan tomorrow night? Uh huh? No, baby, I can stay at your apartment, but I'm going to be in the extra bedroom, you know that…oh, don't pout Joshie. I didn't say I'd be going to bed all that early, now did I?"

She flopped back on the bed, thinking that it likely hadn't been made since the last time the sheets were changed. Bonnie was just like her, tending to camp out on her bed much more than any chair. Grinning wickedly, she touched the little strip of belly that was showing as her top rode up. "Oh yes. Joshie, that's dirty…No, I don't mind…I kinda like it…just cause I won't do it doesn't mean I don't want to…you got that right…yeah, baby, that's what I'm talking about…uh oh, I think Bonnie's back. Lemme call you when I get to the motel…dream about me, Joshie, I'll be dreaming about you. I love you, my little artist…bye." She closed the phone just as the door swung open.

Her expression changed right away, noting the dark cloud that seemed to hover over her oldest friend. Bonnie threw down her purse and slumped sideways across her desk chair, leaning on the back.

"Bon? What's wrong, honey? Did Mervin show you where he lived."

"Yeah, he did."

Tara perked up slightly. "So, what was it like? Is it a big, pretty house? Or does he live in something like the Ferret Hole?"

"I can't talk about it." Bonnie said flatly.

"Bonnie, is something wrong? Did he hurt you or something?"

"Tara, just drop it, okay. I said I can't talk about it, not that I don't want to. He made me promise to keep what he showed me a secret."

"Is that why you look like you're either about to bawl you eyes out or claw somebody else's out? Because you want to tell somebody."

Bonnie turned her back on her, leaning over her work desk. "No. I'm just really bummed because we're not going out Friday, that's all."

"Oh no! Don't tell me he dumped you already."

She sat up and glared at Tara for a moment. "You make it sound like that was a foregone conclusion."

Tara looked away. "Well…you haven't had that good a track record since Brick, uh…dumped you."

"Well, he didn't dump me. I didn't give him the chance. I just told him that it was better if we called the whole thing off."

"What? Just because he turned out to be a superhero? Bonnie, that's…"

"Shallow?" Her voice was almost half growl.

"No, considering the way you talked about him up till we found out, I say it's dumb."

Bonnie looked up and glared at her again. "Dumb? You know what's dumb? Dumb is trying to get away from all the old crap I dealt with in Middleton, away from Possible and all her mission crap, and what do I do? I hop in the sack with a guy who not only knows her, but worked with her in the past. I could've took it if he turned out to be some kind of rich-kid slacker, which is what I thought he was. I could even take it if he was some broke kid on a student loan, but to find out that he lives in a tower out in the middle of the bay…"

"Oh, so that's what that is." Tara blurted out.

"Yeah. Well, that's all I can say about it, like it's any big secret around here anyway. Guess nobody thought to tell me that the local superheroes lived in a tower on a man-made island. More than that, I can't help but feel like I've been played by him."

"Well, you said yourself he's got secrets to protect."

"Secrets? Now that I know about him, it occurs to me that just about everybody else _but_ me knows who he is. They have got to have the worst kept secret identities in the whole city. The only people who don't know who they are don't actually live here, like me."

"If they're so big," Tara countered, "How come we've never heard of them before. It's not like every big city in the country has its own superhero team."

"Don't know, don't care. It's all behind me now. I'll just turn on the full 'Rockwaller' tomorrow, and by nightfall I'll have another date lined up for the weekend. Some nice, plain, good looking jock who doesn't go around shrinking. For crying out loud, what kind of power is shrinking?"

"He did get in your room. Apparently he got in your pants too."

"Shrinking had no…Tara! That was just a mistake. I should have gone out with him first…gone out a few times instead of playing like I'm some major-league slut. I still can't believe I did that."

Tara sat there, slowly shaking her head. "You know what, and this is going to sound strange coming from me, but I can believe it."

"What, that I would sleep with a guy I just met? Geez, Tara, I know you're this big snow-queen and all, but hey."

"Not what I'm saying. Sorry if it came out like that. Bonnie, you've been with, what, two other guys? Brick maybe?"

"Told you a hundred times, I never did that with Brick, but yeah, exactly two other times besides with Mervin."

"So, do you think that you, uh, you know, with him because maybe you wanted to?"

"Well doy. I'm not gonna do that if I didn't want to. I just can't figure why I did."

Tara sat up, leaning forward with her hands clasped together. "I think you're in love with him."

"WHAT? Tara, I haven't known him long enough to even know if I like him, let alone love him."

She wasn't quite ready to give up the thought just yet. "What I'm getting at, I saw the two of you together. When he showed up a few hours ago you lit up like I can't tell you what. Yes I can, you lit up like you did the first time Brick asked you out, like when Brick got all old-fashioned and asked you to go steady. I'm not talking about the deep lasting kind of love, I'm talking about just plain old love at first sight."

"Pfffft. If you believe in any of that hokum, then you can believe all that monkey nonsense Stoppable was spouting off about back in High School. Now, maybe it was lust at first sight, but I don't think there's any kind of love in this equation."

"Why not? Maybe the two of you were destined to be together."

"Or maybe his cologne drove me wild. Earth to Tara, the world really doesn't work that way. This isn't a fairy tale and he's not Prince Charming. Outside of him being, like, a costumed freak, he's just an ordinary guy who's not especially good looking, especially smart and on top of that, he's not exceptionally nice, at least to other people."

Tara wasn't convinced. "Okay, then if that's the case, and you're not turning real loose on me all of a sudden, why'd you do it? Sounds to me like you're the one making the case for turning into a slut."

"Tara, it's not like that. A while ago, when he took me to his home, we went up to see his room."

"Went up to see it, or '_went up to his room_?'"

Bonnie stood up, pacing the small room. "That's just it. He was just showing it off to me, like he was all proud of all this stuff he had, medals and plaques and all this stuff from the city thanking him for all the stuff he's done. He was just droning on and on about him doing this and him doing that, all while I was standing there just looking at his bed, thinking about closing the door and hoping his little brothers were nothing like my own sisters. I was like, undressing him with my eyes and the more I thought about that, the more it pissed me off. That's not me."

"What, that you're physically attracted to a guy? Come off it, Bonnie. It's normal. Hell, if you hadn't come in when you did, I might have been having phone s…uh, talking a little dirty with Josh."

Bonnie's eyebrow shot up. "You, doing _that?_"

"Yeah. Bonnie, that's part and parcel of being in love with a guy. I want to sleep with Josh. I love him and I hope one day we get married so I can. I don't do that because I made a conscious decision that I was going to wait, no matter what, until I was married. Doesn't mean I don't want to. On the contrary, I think about it all the time and my will gets tested when I'm with him. I don't think badly at all about what you do. That's your decision, but I don't think you would ever make a decision like that unless there was something there. Oh, and on top of all that, Mervin's a whole lot hotter than you're saying he is. Not my type, being all tall and stuff like that, but still."

"Okay, so he's a little handsome. I still don't feel right about this, and if I'm not feeling it now, how's it going to be a couple weeks down the road? How's it going to be six months from now if we were still together? Something isn't sitting right with me and I'd rather be alone than waste my time."

Tara sat back on the bed, propping herself up on her elbows. "So you're not going to even give him one chance. You're not going to let him take you out to dinner, to have a normal date, to give him the chance to prove himself? That's not the Bonnie I know."

"Tara, if I went out with him, you know what would happen. We'd either end up right back here, or in that stupid tower…"

"Then don't do that. Promise yourself right from the get-go that you'll go out, have a good time and when the date is over, you kiss him goodnight and come home. You're not a pair of animals in rut, you can make decisions for yourself. Take that out of the equation and get to know him as a person."

Bonnie threw up her hands in exasperation. "But he's not a normal person. Without that holo-whatsit on his writs, he's purple. He's freaking purple! He's got purple skin, he's got purple hair. He shrinks, for crying out loud!"

"So? Did he ask to be purple? Maybe he got bit by a purple bug or something, or got something spilled on him."

"He told me how he got his powers, and no, he didn't ask for it…"

"Then he's just a normal guy. So he looks a little strange if he doesn't have that thing on. Apparently he didn't need to turn it off to…"

"Enough, Tara. Look, I know you're trying to be a friend, but I've made up my mind. This isn't what I want in my life right now. You see what Possible is like. Hell, you see what Ron is like too. Those two can work because they can do all that stuff together. I'd always be on the sidelines with him. He'd be doing all that hero stuff and coming home to me at night. I'm not built for that sort of thing."

"Was Ron?"

"Well, yeah." She stopped herself. She had seen firsthand what he was capable of during her short stay at Yamanuchi, but she couldn't talk about that, even with the girl who had been her best friend for most of her life.

"Bonnie, ten or fifteen years from now, say you're married to some 'normal' guy. He gets up in the morning, kisses you goodbye and goes to work. Then he comes back home to you in the evening. How is that any different? He'll have some kind of career, you'll have yours. The only difference is he's saving people like us from that trash that jumped in your car this morning. That's a pretty good thing in my book. You don't have to be a part of that to have a go with him."

"It's different, Tara. I can't put it into words right now, but it's just different." She sat back down, rubbing her temples. "Listen, I'm tired of talking about it, and I really could use a cigarette right about now."

Tara sat up again, concerned. "I thought you quit."

"I did, and I'm not going to smoke, but that doesn't mean I don't want to. Lemme get changed and we can go out somewhere. There's a club not far from here that lets eighteen year olds in, let's just go there and see if we can get our minds off this, okay?"

Tara wasn't convinced, but she let the matter drop for the time being. She was sure she had seen what she had seen, and knew her friend too well to know that she could put it behind her so easily. Almost sadly, she borrowed a dress that would fit her and went to the dance club.

As usual, Bonnie spent the evening sitting at a table, nursing a non-alcohol beverage, obviously wishing it were something stronger, and Tara knew she was really wishing there was a tall, thin young man with purple eyes there to ask her to dance.

* * *

Bonnie Rockwaller (and all Kim Possible Characters) © Disney 


	11. Pleading the Case

**Redeemable: Part XI - Pleading the Case  
**

* * *

Bonnie unlocked her room and stepped inside. A deep sigh escaped as she turned on the lights, spying the empty desk chair sitting in the middle of the room, as if there would actually be somebody there waiting for her. She knew that wasn't going to happen, after making it abundantly clear two days earlier that any Bonnie Rockwaller/Mervin Godfrey relationship was over before it even began. She could still see the shock on his face as she turned and walked right out of the tower, climbing back into the water taxi alone. She didn't even turn back to look at the receding tower, clasping her arms over her chest as if September was suddenly more like January. 

She dropped Tara off at the airport the next day, skipping her early class to do so. Then she dropped her car off at a body shop, gave them her insurance information and left before she could get into an argument about whether insurance covered being rescued from a car-jacker by superheroes. That evening she went right back to the club, and still ended up sitting alone at a table, brushing off the steady stream of guys who were there to proposition her. They all seemed to want one thing, and even though, in a way, that was what she wanted, _they_ were not what she wanted.

Classes the next day seemed to drag on by. If there were any "Rockwaller Charms" to be turned on, she simply didn't know how. She simply got up that morning, waited her turn at the showers and went to class in an old Middleton High School Athletics Department t-shirt and old, faded jeans. If anyone had known her from her former life at that self-same school, they would not have recognized her. In reality, even without makeup, she was still a very beautiful young woman, but she did not think so.

_I wanted a change, so here it is. I'm not going to put on my war-paint to impress everybody any more. I'm tired of all that crap. If somebody doesn't like the real me, well, to hell with them._

It wasn't so easy to tell her English Lit. professor that. He spotted her in the halls and cornered her, giving her down in the country for missing his lecture the day before. He ended up giving her an extra assignment in addition to the material she was supposed to have done, so her mood turned even fouler as the day went on.

_I'm willing to bet Possible doesn't have to worry about missing classes. She probably just takes off whenever she feels like it, saying it was 'a mission' and la-de-da, everybody stands back singing her praises, while all the rest of the students either have to share their notes with her when she gets back, or simply have to keep their noses to the grinding wheel because they're just not as special as she is._

She threw her book bag on the bed, trying to force the memory of her former rival out of her head. What good was dwelling on the little diva if that was what she was trying to put behind her. What was important was firing up her laptop so she could finish the paper she was writing for US History, then head down to the computing center and wait in line to print it out. Either that, or she was going to have to take the bus to _Paper Clips_ and actually buy a printer, even though it was cheaper to replace the whole thing than buy new cartridges when the ink ran out.

Bonnie went so far as to boot her portable computer up, but she just couldn't bring herself to open the file. _Dammit, it's Friday night. I'm not supposed to be holed up in this shoebox of a dorm room, sitting here by myself. Maybe Tara was right. Maybe I should have just strung him along so I could at least get a good dinner out of him. Maybe some real dancing, instead of shoeing off a bunch of pigs._

Tara was right about another thing. She could have just had a date, without worrying about what may or may not come afterwards. In fact she was right that she could have kept it only a night out.

Still, all that thinking aside, she was bored – as in out of her skull. Bending down, she connected the Ethernet cable and started her Firewolf web browser, griping to herself that the Senior dorms had Wi-Fi. First, she pulled up her electronic date book. The only names there were really friends from high school, and every single one of them were in other cities. Tara she knew she could call any time, but she would be in either Upperton or Middleton, doing whatever it was that 'good' girls did with their boyfriends on Friday nights. Her whole interest in Josh Mankey had really been to get at Kim, so the fact he was now in a committed relationship with Tara Matthews, he was purely neutral territory.

She clicked her bookmarks and opened a link she would have never admitted she had on her computer. It had been more than a year since she had looked at that particular site, but it remained in her favorites. It still looked the same, for the most part, though the main banner now read "Team Possible" rather than just mentioning Kim. There was also a picture of the couple together, dressed in their bland 'mission' clothes. Her cursor lingered close to the 'contact information' link for a moment, before she simply x-ed out of her browser.

_Am I that pathetic? Funny, I'm probably the only person who graduated from MHS last spring who doesn't have her digits in their cell phone. Like, ew, I'm really going to spend my Friday night talking to K on the phone? Like she would give me the time of day._

She closed the computer, letting it wink off rather than bother hunting for the power cable or risk running the batteries down too much.

Not able to actually work on her paper, nor interesting in randomly surfing the internet, she rose and plopped down on her seldom-made bed beside her bag. _So this is college life. Big freaking whoop. All that scrambling to 'get in a good school' and all she had to show for it was a closet just big enough for a bed not much larger than a cot, and nobody to even talk to on a Friday night._ She even cursed herself for taking her car into the shop so quickly. Even with the bashed doors, it would have felt good to get out on the expressway and open it up, with the top rolled down, car-jackers be damned. She could ride up the lake shore, not caring where she ended up, as long as she was ready for class come Monday morning.

It was too late for that. The body shop was closed by then, and it would be just her luck that she had picked the only efficient shop in the whole state and they would already have started on it. Not that it was likely, since she was feeling to lazy to actually ride the bus over there again. She could just hear her resident advisor, repeating what he had said on orientation day. Don't ever travel alone at night, on campus or off. Like she cared if anyone would try something. She had a black belt in karate, and that had been supplemented by what she learned on her trip to Yamanuchi the previous fall. She would have actually enjoyed beating the holy crap out of some thug who tried something with her.

She rolled onto her back, spotting something she had forgotten about. The mirror on her chest-of-drawers had a little hutch, and on top of that was an old glass peanut butter jar holding the flowers Mervin had brought her. Somehow or another they still looked reasonably fresh, though they had literally been forgotten.

_Well, I could have either been a stupid bitch tonight, or a selfish bitch_, she thought, feeling like the former. She wouldn't have cared if she felt like the latter. _Let the guy pay for dinner. Let him make a fool of himself, trying to be some kind of debonair gentleman. Selfish is good. You never get what you want unless you're selfish at the right moments._

But was that what she wanted? Images of the short time they spent together flitted across her mind, unbidden. Was it just the simple fact that it had been so good, felt so right? Was it just some animal/chemical thing between them? Or was Tara actually right, that there was something else between them, something beyond the mere physical pleasure they had taken in each other?

The truth of the matter was that she was Bonnie Rockwaller. The good things in her life were going to come to her on her terms, nobody else's. She had to be the one in control, and with Mervin she did not feel that way. She thought about him sitting there on that chair, his lanky frame barely fitting on it, his wild, teased brown hair looking so, dare she say, sexy?

Growling, she got up and started pacing the room. It wasn't supposed to be like this. She wasn't supposed to be acting like some wild animal in heat. She was an educated, civilized human being and she was supposed to be above all of that.

The pacing didn't help. All she kept thinking about was that she was alone in her room, dressed like some slacker frump who didn't give a damn how she looked. She should have her face done up, with the brightest red lipstick she had. Her hair should have been fluffed up, with her carefully applied highlights shining on her carefully sculpted razor cut. She stopped at her mirror, staring at her face.

_Where those bags forming under her eyes?_ She didn't look eighteen, she looked THIRTY!

She was about to crash down on the bed again when there was a soft knock on her door.

"Go away." She plopped down on her back, throwing her arm over her eyes.

"Bonnie, it's seven." A male voice called to her from outside.

_What the hell_?

There was no doubt about it. Mervin Godfrey was on the other side of that door, at precisely the moment he was supposed to be there. Just how stupid was he? What part of 'it's off' did he not understand?

"Mervin, just go away, okay. It's not going to happen. Go…back to that place of yours and just forget about me, alright."

"No."

She stood up, staring at the door, dumbfounded by his refusal.

"I told you the date was off, so, just take yourself and your purple-holo-thingy and go home. I'm not that interested in you and I'm not going out with you, tonight, or ever."

There was a pause. "I don't believe you, and I'm not leaving this door until you come out here just like you promised you would do."

Bonnie balled up her fists, the rest of her body going just as rigid. "If you don't leave, I'm going to call campus security and have you removed."

She could hear him laugh softly. "Don't think that's going to work. I know everybody on the security detail, and it's not like they're going to throw _me_ off campus."

"You sure have a high opinion of yourself."

"Pot…Kettle…black, Bonnie."

"Listen, I mean it. They aren't going to care one bit who you are if I call the campus cops and tell them I've got a guy stalking me." She hoped that was the case. The GCU security were actually a detail of the GCPD, and should take any such report as seriously, no matter who it was being reported.

"Bonnie. I'm not stalking you. Listen, I just want to have one nice, normal date with you. Then you can tell me to piss off just like every other girl here does. I won't even pretend that I thought I saw something special between us, but I saw something in you. On the surface you seem like a stuck up, arrogant, selfish girl who can't say 'me' enough, but I know there's something else under all of that. There's a beautiful person under there, and that's who I want a chance to get to know. Believe me, I know what it's like for people to think you consider yourself the center of the universe.

Hesitantly, she put her hand on the doorknob. Closing her eyes, she turned it, hoping he wasn't about to stick his foot in the doorjamb. He was standing there, dressed in a nice shirt and jeans, his holographic projector set to 'normal.'

Careful not to look in his eyes, she said "Come on in here, before you embarrass yourself." She closed the door behind him, still unable to look up at him. "Might as well let you in. Not like I could keep you out."

"Bonnie, I'm not going to do that to you."

"Fine. So, does your power make you hard of hearing, or do you not speak plain English here in Go City?" She sat down on her bed, holding her legs tightly together and crossing her arms over her ample chest.

"No. I heard you just fine. In fact, this afternoon I rented some video games and bought some snacks so I could hole up in the tower by myself, just like I usually do on Fridays when the twins have dates."

"Such a fun life you superheroes lead." She said dryly.

"Well, like I told you, it's not what any of us asked for. At least I deal with it better than my sis…"

"We are not talking about her. She's Possible's problem, not mine."

"Hey, she may be a cranky smartass, prone to excessive violence, but she's still my sister."

"Alright, already, I'm not gonna rag on her, just don't want to talk about her, kay?"

He tilted his head at the chair. He immediately sat down once she nodded, not wanting to stand over her while they talked. "Look, why don't we just go out somewhere so we can talk?"

"Have you looked at me? Do I look like I'm ready for a date? I told you. No date."

"Well, I believed you. I was all ready to gorge myself on chips and stuff when Herman came to the tower. He about flipped out and pretty much kicked me out of there."

"Oh joy. So mister universe is now play matchmaker. Maybe we should hook him up with Tara, they'd make a cute couple."

"Uh, Herman's married." He stopped when she shot him a glare. "Yeah, he's got it in his head that he's responsible for me and my brothers, even though I'm twenty. Just kept going on and on about missing my chance and all that. He wouldn't listen to me when I told him I missed my chance the moment you found out I was Mego."

"No, it's not that. Mervin, I think we just got off on the wrong foot."

"You mean…uh…it's not like I've had that much practice."

"No, it's not that. Well, it is, but it's not because I didn't like it. I think it's the fact I did, and somehow I don't like that I liked it."

"Okay, now you're really not making sense."

"Well how can I make sense when I can't make heads or tails of it in the first place. I'm just freaked out, okay?"

"The superhero thing kind of has that effect on people."

"No, Mervin. Until the other day I didn't even know about it. I didn't even expect it. That has nothing to do with the fact I'm…ashamed of myself."

Taking a chance, he reached for her, pulling one of her hands free. "There's nothing to be ashamed of."

She almost let go, but allowed him to gently hold her hand. "Yes, there is. Being like that…it's just like my sisters, and that's not what I wanted to be. I spent eighteen years in their shadow, watching them bring boy after boy into our house, and when I got that age, Mom…she."

"Let me guess. She thought you would turn out differently?"

"Yeah. It was okay when I was dating Brick. He was 'acceptable' to her, but when I went to the prom with this other guy, she found out I got the date by promising him something and she just about threw me out of the house. Then there was one other guy over summer, and that went just as well."

"So, you're freaking out because you think your mother would call you a slut, or something terrible."

"No, Mervin. I'm freaking out because I'm worried she might be right. We knew each other, what, three hours and we were in bed? If that's not a textbook definition of that, then I don't know what is."

He let go of her hand and buried his face in his. "God, I feel like such a jackass. If it makes you feel any better, I don't think you're that way."

"Bull. What the hell are you supposed to think?"

"Bonnie, what I thought was that I was having a really good time talking to you. Then all of a sudden we're kissing and I'm like, not understanding what was happening. I told you I didn't have much experience? That's an understatement. I didn't have _any_ experience whatsoever. The only thing I can think of is that you wanted it to happen. Then it happened the same way again."

"I…I was the first…you were a…?"

"Yeah. I was. Bonnie, I'm uh."

"You're what?"

"Well, I'm trying to think of words more appropriate than groping or feeling my way around the dark with you."

She actually laughed. "I know what you meant."

"I'd be lying if part of this is because I want that to happen again. I do, I really do, but I want it to be part of something normal. So, what do you say we just go out and do something simple."

"I already told you, I'm not going out looking like this." She had to ask herself why not, considering that was exactly what she had looked like all day.

"Actually, you look pretty hot. Look at me, I'm not exactly dressed to kill."

She smiled again. "For guy who doesn't know anything about women, you're pretty smooth."

"Nothing smooth about it. Hey, I noticed one thing. It's not 'you won't go out with me' any more, but you won't go out like that."

Bonnie held up her hands. "Okay. Dinner, maybe a movie if it isn't too late to see something good, but you go wait downstairs in the lobby. I've got certain standards, no matter how hot you think I am without at least some makeup…and when we get back, you say goodnight in the lobby as well. Got it?"

She closed the door behind him once more, closing her eyes as well. She could take up to an hour putting her face together if she wanted to, but there was a strange sense of urgency and she was ready inside of five minutes, changing into a thin, lacy blouse instead of the t-shirt.

As she locked the door behind her, she wondered if they really would say goodnight at the lobby, or if she did, that it would be tomorrow afternoon.

* * *

Bonnie Rockwaller (and all Kim Possible Characters) © Disney 


	12. Gimme Some Lovin

**Redeemable: Part XII - Gimme Some Lovin  
**

* * *

Every so often Bonnie would glance over at the man driving the small car. In the dim glow of the dashboard, he looked so…ordinary. Not the bad sort of ordinary, just…normal. Somehow she thought the holographic projector thingy he wore on his wrist to appear that way would flicker slightly in the dark. It didn't before, but she hadn't known to look for anything like that at the time. Maybe that was what he would have looked like if that comet, meteor or whatever it was hadn't hit when he was younger. He did mention something about vaguely remembering his eyes were once blue, but that had been a decade ago, and he was just a child at the time.

What kind of sick person takes a ten year-old, not to mention a fourteen year-old sister and twin six year-old brothers and makes them into some kind of superhero outfit? Maybe it was his older brother. He would have been, what, seventeen, eighteen at the time? Mervin did tend to drone on and on how he should really be the leader of the team, though it was a little hard to call the small band of brothers a team. Listening to him she could almost sympathize with Shego getting fed up and moving on. Then again, all she knew about the mint-hued villainess was that she was involved in Doctor Drakken's robot fiasco and had somehow managed to rip the roof right off the local Bueno Nacho several years earlier. Then it was like, whatever, though she was slightly ticked off that Possible somehow got out of detention to go fight the crazy woman.

The one time Mervin seemed to shut up about himself was when he was driving. Then he seemed to wrap himself up in his own little world. When he had taken her to see the Go Tower it was rush hour, so she thought then he was just paying special attention. She would have never survived driving in the mess. Middleton had always seemed like a large city to her, but compared to Go City, it was just a one-horse town. It was almost as bad that Friday evening, though it seemed a tad calmer. Her date just drove calmly, not speaking, not cursing the other idiots on the road.

It struck her as she looked at him that they didn't really seem to be out on a date. Then again, they were only driving to wherever it was he was taking her. When she was out with Brick, it would almost always be on his motorcycle and she would wrap her arms around his thick chest, wondering if he could feel her ample attributes through the thick letter jacket he constantly wore, no matter what the weather was like.

His car was a little surprising. It was small and kind of boxy. She had seen a few of them around her hometown, though never in great numbers. Maybe he liked it because of the headroom, being fairly tall. It had a fairly high-tech look to it, though it was nothing that she would have expected from a superhero. Ugly as the Psion was, it was certainly a good deal roomier than her Mustang.

Without quite knowing why, she leaned over toward him and hooked her arm around his. She wasn't sure, but she thought a faint little smile formed on his lips.

"You're sure being quiet." She said, running a hand up and down his lean arm.

"Sorry. I'm not used to passengers. Well, that's not entirely true. Up till they got their licenses I had to shuttle the twins around all over the place. Those two won't ever shut up, so I'm kind of used to tuning them out."

"I wish I could tune out my sisters. God I couldn't stand being around them sometimes."

"Eh, it's not so much I don't like being around them, it's just their 'on' all the time, like they've had a 'Red Bull' IV stuck in their arms since they were two. Ever since Mom and Pop adopted them it was like, 'Mervin go play with your brothers', or 'Mervin go help your brothers clean up their rooms'. Then later on it was Herman going 'Mervin, drive your brothers to soccer practice' or 'Mervin be sure to get them to school this morning.' Man I was glad when those two got a car. And it didn't stop when Herman got married and moved out either. I swear, I wonder if his wife ever even sees him. He's always either at the tower or at that stupid big Bueno Nacho he runs. I don't even know how he found time to get her pregnant."

Bonnie shuddered slightly at the mention of the dreaded 'P' word. She lived in fear for almost a whole month after her Senior Prom, even though they did use protection. Even that evening she was very slightly concerned. Somehow she had not yet learned to trust her meds, though she had been on them since late spring. She wasn't even sure she was ready for what had already gone on between the two of them, let alone becoming a mother by the time she was nineteen.

"So, are we actually going somewhere, or are we just going to drive around in silence all night?" They were a long way from the tall, new spires of the center city. The buildings were still tall, but looked somewhat older and seedier then she would have liked.

"You'll see. I'm taking you someplace special, something the tourists don't get to see."

Somehow she didn't quite like the sound of that. She was one of the few people who had never been to the bluff overlooking the suburbs of Middleton, though she knew its reputation quite well. If he was taking her to a place like that…

Then again, that wouldn't make sense. They had already demonstrated they didn't need to go parking to be together. Not quite able to calm her nerves completely, she settled into her seat, her fingers still gently caressing his upper arm.

Finally he pulled into a gravel parking lot at a building that looked more like a barn than anything else. The walls were made up of crude panels of corrugated siding, with lots of rust visible. What became evident rather quickly was that the dilapidated on purpose. The sign she recognized from a TV show she surfed by from time to time.

There was already a line to get in. The people waiting were dressed in a rainbow of different styles. There were Emos, the ubiquitous Goths, a fair number of kids their own age and even younger, dressed in everything from western wear to retro 80s junk. Strangely enough, some of the patrons waiting to get in to the Go City _Shack or Rhythm_ were wearing rumpled black suits, white shirts, skinny black ties and ratty fedoras. Even though it was quite dark out, they were all wearing sunglasses…dark, black lensed sunglasses of a style that went out long ago. For a moment she was wondering if she was about to step into some _Twilight Zone_ version of a _Men in Black_ convention, but the look was slightly off. There was something dirty and disorganized about their appearance. The alien fighting heroes of the popular movie series were nothing if not neat and crisp in their appearance.

Mervin just walked right up, as if he owned the place. Two tall, bulky men with dark, modern sunglasses and tight t-shirts watched as the couple approached, not saying a word. Mervin produced a card from his wallet, waved it in front of them and they opened the rope, letting the two of them in.

"What the?" Bonnie asked, looking back over her shoulders at the angry patrons still trying to get past the bouncers.

"Owner owed us a favor, so he got us special passes. So, want to get a table, or do you want to head down front?"

"Uh, I'm kind of hungry. Do they have anything to eat?"

Mervin guided her to a table and held her chair for her. "They've got an appetizer menu. Want me to get anything? Deep dish pizza? Go City style hot dog?"

"Whatever. As long as it's good."

"You want a drink with that?"

She opened her mouth for a second. Usually in places like that she would be stopped at the door and her ID would be checked. If she didn't have her hand stamped, she would be forced to stick to pop or coffee. In other places, where the control was a little more lax, she didn't mind having an occasional beer. She just couldn't tell exactly what he was offering her. Somehow the thought of a cold draft beer appealed to her at that moment, but she didn't want to send the wrong signal, or be embarrassed if he was only offering her something softer.

"How about an iced decaf soy latte. If they do that here."

"I'll see what I can do. Be right back."

She watched him go, then turned her attention back to the stage. An ordinary looking drum set was in the middle of the stage, as well as a large electric keyboard and some other instruments besides the expected guitars. There were no banners or signs of any kind indicating exactly who the entertainment would be. Most likely some local garage band with delusions of grandeur. The bands she saw on TV were usually much bigger productions.

Mervin came back with a tray of food from the snack bar. If he intended to get himself something, he must have taken a cue from her and got a large cup of iced tea for himself. Her latte was of the bottled variety, but that was better than somebody trying to make it without a proper cappuccino machine. The food was garden variety hot snack food, a couple of hot dogs with an interesting array of toppings, including relish that was so green it must have been radioactive, some hot wings and a basket of cheese slathered nachos. Gingerly she started in on one of the wings, not quite sure what all was on the hot dogs under that relish.

"You okay, Bonnie?" He asked, scooting his seat a little closer to hers so they could share the food. He picked up one of the hot dogs, popping the small pepper into his mouth before taking a big bite.

"Not exactly what I was expecting. Do you know this band?"

"Oh yeah. I think you'll like them, They don't get here to play as often as they used to, especially since one of the original guys died, but they still put on a quality show."

"O…kay." She said dubiously. She had been thinking about something more along the lines of a romantic dinner for two, not some trash rock wannabes. A few people were filtering onto the stage. At first she thought they might be roadies, but that didn't make sense. Garage bands didn't have such luxuries. It wasn't until they started picking up their instruments that she realized they were actually the band.

The music was something of a surprise. With the horns and the sax, they had a lot fatter, bluesier sound than she had been expecting. For old guys, they were really pretty good. The played what must have been a fairly long intro and she started wondering where the vocalists were.

The tempo picked up and evened out as two men, dressed just like half the kids waiting outside, strolled out onto the stage. Again she wondered if they were just some part of the show. The tall, thin one was carrying a leather satchel of some sort, while the shorter, chubbier one swung what looked like it must have been a key on a long chain in circles.

Almost to the beat, the short one unlocked a pair of handcuffs that secured the satchel to the tall one's wrist. She was completely enthralled as he pulled what might have been a harmonica out of the bag before throwing it back on the stage.

Her eyes got big as saucers as she realized what she was actually watching. The short one suddenly did a cartwheel on the stage before doing a tumbling series that Kim Possible would have been proud of out to the end of the catwalk extending from the stage.

He landed on one knee, staying that way for a few beats as the music stopped. He counted off a beat, and the band launched into a new piece.

Bonnie was grinning from ear to ear watching the performance. The larger guy didn't have a voice to write home about, but the whole act just plain worked.

"Oh my God, are those really?..."

"Yep." Mervin had to shout to be heard over the music. "The one and only Rhythm Brothers. Go City's own!" He was wearing one of his rare smiles, just as into the performance as she was.

Bonnie picked up her hotdog and bit into it, discovering the interesting new flavors the Go City style toppings gave it. She was a lot more used to standard chili dogs, or more often the Americanized Tex-Mex served at Bueno Nacho. For snack bar food it was surprisingly good.

Later in the set, when they launched into "Shake Your Tail feathers" Mervin dragged her out onto the floor. It was a big change from her usual dance-dates, where she usually ended up sitting most of the time while Brick ran his mouth with his cronies. For the first time since she set foot in one of the largest cities in the nation, she was actually having fun.

Sometime around midnight the Rhythm Brothers made their way up to the microphone. The taller one, who usually only did some backing vocals or blew on the harmonica, stepped up. "We're twenty-six miles from Go City, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses."

The shorter one took the mike, but it was impossible to hear what he said since the whole crowd shouted "HIT IT!" right back at them while they danced their way off the stage.

Bonnie stumbled to the car, arm in arm with Mervin, still chanting some of the lyrics to the old classics the two of them sang. Not a bit of their act was original, but they put their own stamp on it, making it even better than what they were trying to cover. It didn't matter that every single bit of it, including the movie that featured the 'brothers' had come long before she was born, she'd had the time of her life.

It seemed to get better as Mervin put the CD of the movie soundtrack in the stereo as they drove back. The two of them didn't spend the ride in silence, but singing right along with it. They were one of the rare acts that was just as good live as they were on the old recording.

Finally, they ended up, just like Bonnie had said, standing facing each other, hand in hand in the lobby of her dorm. She found she didn't want the night to end, but had made a promise to herself. Bonnie wanted to know if what she was feeling was real, and if it was, then this would be a good test.

It became an even stronger test when she reached for him and gave him a kiss like she never had before. A couple other students strolled by, not paying the couple any heed, though one co-ed shook her head as she scurried toward the elevator. Finally, all too soon, the kiss ended.

"Can I see you tomorrow night?" He asked.

"If you don't, I'm gonna hurt you bad." She said, giving him another quick kiss.

He turned to go, still smiling. The grin absolutely transformed his face, and she suddenly realized hers was mirroring it. Waving, she started to speak. "I…"

What was she trying to say? Hastily she covered. "I'll see you tomorrow. Can't wait."

"Me neither." He backed into the glass door, almost stumbling, then headed out into the night.

Bonnie got on the elevator and punched the button for her room, all the while singing softly to herself, "Someone to love, someone to love, someone to miss, someone to miss, sweetheart to kiss…"

* * *

Bonnie Rockwaller (and all Kim Possible Characters) © Disney 


	13. Ten Pounds

**Redeemable: Part XIII - Ten Pounds  
**

* * *

"Rockwaller! Get your head in the game!"

Bonnie snapped out of her reverie. Her body was operating on autopilot, going through the motions of the cheer she was trying to do, and it showed. It also too a few moments for it to register exactly what the phrase was the squad's choreographer had used.

"What did you just say?" She snapped, holding her green and white pom poms at her hips.

"I said pay attention to what you're doing and get it right. This isn't high school any more and you can't rely on your team captain to pull your lazy butt out of the fire any more. Now get your brain back where it belongs or go sit down." The statuesque African-American woman planted her hands on her hips as well, glaring at the eight girls who made up the main cheerleading squad.

She wasn't quite used to having somebody run the team from the outside. For the last three year of High School it had always been Possible calling the shots. There actually was a faculty member responsible for the team, but there was so little for that person to do, very few knew it was actually Steve Barkin who held that position.

Several times already Bonnie had been tempted to quit. Auditioning for the team seemed like a natural step for her when she was accepted by the school. It came as no surprise to her when she was picked to be on the main squad. It was rare indeed that a Freshman would be allowed on that particular team, instead of one of the minor squads. In particular, it was because they would occasionally be seen on TV, especially if the GCU basketball team was performing well come March.

It became evident pretty quickly that there was a lot more work involved than there ever had been at Middleton High School. More work, more time, and the routines were significantly more complex. Then there was Mrs. Barrow.

The girls tended to call her Gunny behind her back. Delia Barrow had never served in the Marines, but she had the hard barking, high discipline routine down pat. Half the time they were expecting her to scream something about ripping off their heads and performing something disgusting down their necks. Nobody liked her. The thing was, though, she got results.

Bonnie sometimes found she didn't care about the results any more. The only thing that remained for her was to finally claw her way to the top and become the team captain. Once she actually managed to do that in high school, though Possible somehow fixed it that there was so much work to do, it overwhelmed her and she ended up giving the position right back to her rival. Then in their Senior Year, Kim did everything in her power to maintain her leadership position, to the point Bonnie eventually became completely irrelevant. That rankled her.

So, when the letter about tryouts came, she put on the gold colored uniform she procured for the team and went on, thought most of the other girls trying out for the a-team were upperclassmen. She had something left to prove, and if it took being on the squad until she was a senior herself, she was going to do it.

What she didn't count on was that the captain's position was pretty much ceremonial. About the only privilege going along with it was to be the top of the pyramids, when they actually did them. That staple of High School athletics just seemed so trite at the collegiate level.

"Okay, girls, that's enough for today. Go over the next part of the routine and be ready to start practicing it tomorrow. We've got three weeks before the first demo, and it is going to be ready."

They immediately started disbursing. Bonnie grabbed her duffle, ready to mad a bee-line straight for her dorm and the more private showers there.

"Rockwaller, a word with you." Mrs. Barrow's hands were still glued to her hips, making a lot of the girls wonder if there was something physically wrong with her preventing her from straightening out her arms.

"What is it?" She was tired, sweaty and had about three hours of study ahead of her that evening. She was in no mood to be brow-beaten about her less than stellar performance that afternoon.

"I was about to ask you the same question. What's the deal with you, woman? For the last three weeks, you've been acting strange, like you aren't even bothering to show up.

_Three weeks?_ She had assumed it was just that particular day, like she just having an off-day.

"Your concentration is blown, like your head's up in the clouds. Are you having trouble in your classes? Boy trouble? Or, and excuse me for saying this, but it is the twenty first century, but could it be girl trouble?"

Bonnie visibly grimaced at that suggestion. Then it hit her. Three weeks. It had been just over three weeks since she started dating Mervin and for perhaps for the first time in her life, she knew what it was actually like to have a real boyfriend. One who would dote on her and treat her right when they went out.

The night after that first date he sent her a note to dress up for their second date. Borrowing a page from her former rival, she pulled out her little black dress. It was a tad more revealing than the one Possible always pranced around in, with spaghetti straps and a low cut back, though the skirt was slightly longer. With her significantly more ample chest and curvier hips, she struck a figure that would turn heads no matter where she was.

Mervin's jaw nearly hit the floor when he came to pick her up. He was dressed in a nice jacket and simple but elegant dress clothes. His wild mop of hair was slicked back a little more, though for some reason he skipped shaving that day, making an attempt at looking roguish.

That evening he took her to a rather nice restaurant, behaving like a perfect gentleman. From there he took her to a dance club, once again showing her a bit of the hidden Go City the tourists and part-timers like college students never got to see. In its own way, the evening turned out just as perfectly as the evening before.

Things got even better when she found herself clinging tightly to his arm as they rode a water-taxi out to Go Island. When she woke up in his arms the following morning, she realized that what they had done before was just sex. What followed their second official date was truly making love. She finally understood what that ancient Foreigner song _It Feels Like the First Time_ was really about.

That was as far as she would go using the "L" word. She was completely taken with him, liked dating him, liked talking with him. She liked everything about him, only she would not even begin to think about being in love with him. It didn't matter that the evening spent in her room studying alone were actually spent wishing she were with him. If she were still in high school, she would definitely be saying she like-liked him.

Barrow looked her straight in the eye. "That's what I thought. It's a boyfriend, isn't it?"

"I've been dating a new guy, but that's not the problem."

"Then what is? I hate to say this, but it's looking more and more like I made a mistake putting you on this team."

"I don't have a problem, at least not with my boyfriend. We're doing okay…more than okay, we're doing really good."

Barrow nodded. "That might be the problem right there. Just look at yourself. When you first got here you were all spit and vinegar. You had the drive, the gleam in your eye. You wanted it all and you were going to do whatever you could to achieve that. Now you don't even look like the same girl who came so highly recommended."

_Recommended?_ Who would have recommended her? What was that all about.

"Look, I either need to see some improvement by the time we do our first public demonstrations, or I'm going to have to pull up one of the upperclassmen we passed over to put you on the lead squad. Do you understand me?"

"Yes maam." Bonnie agreed flatly.

"Oh, and you might want to be watching what you eat. You're looking like you're putting on some weight." With that the choreographer turned on her heel military style and strode out of the secondary gym like she was marching, adding to the illusion she was ex-military instead of a one-time GCU graduate who was parlaying her hard won skills into a career.

That last comment hit her like a ton of bricks. Gaining weight? Bonnie hadn't gained weight since she stopped growing about the time she was fifteen. Since then she always hovered around the one oh five mark. Sometimes, if she was retaining water she would push upwards a couple pounds, but she didn't feel bloated. Besides, it wasn't exactly time for that to happen anyway.

Frowning, she found her way down into one of the many workout rooms in the athletics complex. It wasn't hard to find what she was looking for down there. The scales there were far more accurate than the bathroom scale back at home, a household gadget she hadn't bothered bringing with her when she moved into her dorm. That never was a real issue with her.

Almost hesitantly she stepped onto the scale. The digital readout finally settled on a number – one that was somewhat startling;

She was up to one hundred fifteen pounds.

Shivering slightly, she stepped back off of it. A buck-fifteen! She had gained ten pounds since the last time she weighed herself! The implications of that scared her more than anything that had happened before.

Bonnie thought back over the last few weeks. Her time of the month had come and gone like clockwork a week earlier. It had been like that ever since she went on the pill. The problem there was that ever since, it had been very light, almost non-existent. Her doctor explained that it may be because her prescription was too strong for her, and would likely have to be adjusted if that continued.

The other possibility was what was concerning her the most. She was a couple weeks shy of turning nineteen – far too young for that to happen to her. There was also the fact that the pills were known to not be one-hundred percent effective, even though she had been religious about taking them.

She sat down hard on the plastic chairs on the edge of the workout room. It was Monday, and she had been out with Mervin twice over the weekend, both times ending up back at his room. All the magic she had felt from it was washed away with the possibility that the worst outcome of her new physical relationship might be happening to her.

Pulling out her cell phone, her fingers hovered over the 'one' button. Mervin's number had been assigned that position and she sometimes burned up the entire charge on the battery talking to him over it when she couldn't see him. Her shoulders fell a bit when she realized he was supposed to be doing some training exercises with his brother that evening, meaning he would be completely incommunicado until very late that evening.

For a few moments she considered going back to her room and changing, then taking the train to the waterfront and riding the water taxi out to the island. Would they even take her there without Mervin as a guide? Was the tower and the island it sat on closed to everyone but Team Go? It was a possibility she never quite considered. The water-taxi service was there as paid public transportation, though money never changed hands when she was with him.

Then there was the tower itself. The biometric scanner at its door was keyed specifically to the team's glow powers. It wouldn't even open for them without it. He was still put off by that fact, something he only learned when the family was locked out of the place when their powers were stolen by one of their many enemies. That was one of the many reasons he disliked Bonnie's former rival, having to rely on her to get them into their own home.

Making up her mind, she grabbed her duffel and started out of the gym, jogging across the campus towards the dormitory towers. It was still fairly warm out, even for mid-October, but she was already sweaty from cheer practice.

Like an automaton, she quickly showered and changed into her street clothes. What made matters worse was that her red mini-skirt was almost too tight to wear. Muttering to herself, she changed into her 'fat jeans.'

The train ride was interminably long, especially since, for most of the ride, the tower itself was visible. There was something terribly frustrating about seeing your goal, yet not being able to get there more quickly. The, once she got off at the waterfront station closest to the water-taxi dock, the wait got even worse as she half-walked/half-jogged to her destination.

She uttered a curse when she got there. The boat was nowhere to be seen. Growling to herself, she found a place to sit down. Wherever the boat was, it soon had to return there.

Then it started dawning on her. Did she know? How certain was she? On top of that, what was she going to tell Mervin? If it was true, what was she going to do anyway? Questions that had never even occurred to her were bombarding her mind. Could she actually go through with it? Could she actually do something about it that was once to horrible to consider?

How was Mervin going to react? The preceding three weeks had been some of the happiest times she could remember, even when he flaked on her a couple times because his duties as a local superhero called. She had been disappointed then, but didn't hold it against him. He had a job to do, and that meant sometimes spending the evening with his new girlfriend had to take a back seat.

Then she had a horrible thought. Mervin was more like her than she sometimes cared to admit. Sure, they were in the throes of a burgeoning romance, but he still had a tendency to be extremely self-centered. It wasn't so much in the way he treated her, but with other people, sometimes he could be a bit nasty.

What if this kind of news scared him away? Could she take that? Would he be so self-centered that he could tell her to get lost? Or worse, what if he asked her…no…told her to do something else?

Her breathing was a little ragged, and that had nothing to do with the speed she had walked through the warehouse district on her way to the docks. Nor did it have anything to do with the somewhat dangerous looking neighborhood the water-taxi dock was located in.

Bonnie's heart jumped into her throat as she heard an airplane overhead. A multi-colored jet was slowly passing by overhead, slowing as it approached the tower. It was the first time she had actually laid eyes on the Go-Jet, but she knew what it was from Mervin's descriptions.

In a moment of panic, she grabbed her purse and headed back into the city. In minutes another one of the noisy, old trains would be by to carry her away. It was too soon. She couldn't tell Mervin just yet. The whole prospect of losing him, right as their relationship was blooming tore at her heart.

The tears started as the train pulled away from the station. She had to get back to the campus and make some calls. Bonnie normally didn't want any more to do with doctors than she could possibly get away with, but she was going to have to find one right away. She had to know for certain before she went to her boyfriend with the news.

Was he in as much love with her as she was with him to accept the fact she might be pregnant?

* * *

Bonnie Rockwaller (and all Kim Possible Characters) © Disney 


	14. The News

**_Redeemable_: Part XIV – The News **

°۠°°°۠°°°۠°°°۠°°°۠°°°۠°°°۠°°°۠°°°۠°°°۠°°°۠°°°۠°°°۠°°°۠°°°۠°°°۠°°°۠°°°۠°°°۠°°°۠°°°۠°°°۠°°°۠°°۠°°°۠°°°۠°°°۠°°°۠°°°°۠°°°۠°°

"No, listen…just calm down…it's okay…I understand…so, what did the doctor say?...Uh huh...be honest with me, just how are you doing?...no…that's beside the point…well, at least that is good news…so, are you certain who the father is?...of course, of course, that didn't come out the way I meant it, I'm sorry. It's just that you never know about this sort of thing…don't get upset…I said I was sorry…how soon?...well, could she at least tell you if the baby is okay?...no…yes, of course…you're always welcome at the Go Tower…I know it's hard…okay, don't be a stranger…you might not want to hear this, but I do love you…bye.

He put the phone back down in its cradle and paced around the vaulted main room of the Go Tower. The news was…unexpected to say the least. It had the potential to change things, especially if this time their unique powers were passed on. The doctors who had been caring for them since their powers surfaced always felt there was a fifty-fifty chance their progeny would have the power in some form or another. They hadn't quite worked out how the glow affected them on the genetic level. So far, the one child who had been born showed absolutely no sign that it was affected in the least. There wasn't any sign of the power in any of the cell samples that had been taken.

It was awfully strange to think that something had been passed on. Every cell in their bodies was infused the with power. The effect was stronger in some than in others, but it was there. In order to even lead something of a normal life, each and every one of them had to use special image projectors to make them at least appear as regular human beings.

Herman had it the easiest of them. He already was a strong young man when the comet hit ten years earlier. Over the course of that decade he had grown larger, though whether it was directly because of the power or just his body adjusting to it, he had no clue. Other than that, the power had turned his hair blue. Not blue black, as some people with jet black hair like he had been born with were called when the light hit it a certain way, it was blue. Coloring didn't help, because what was visible was not the color of the hair itself, but the glow it was giving off. The only way to keep him for looking like a muscle bound punk rocker was to use the special image generator.

The twins had it a little easier. At first glance they looked like a pair of redheads. Then, when you got closer, you realized their hair wasn't the brassy color associated with natural redheads, but an actual crimson hue not found in nature on a human being. Still, being sixteen, they could get away with it pretty much. They also didn't care much for the secret identity thing either, which led to some interesting family discussions, especially since Herman was their legal guardian.

Mervin and Sherry got the worst of it. For whatever reason, be it more exposure to the rainbow comet, something about their genetic makeup or what, not only did their hair change color, but their skin as well. Sherry was always pale, looking something like a black-haired porcelain doll. Maybe that was the reason the glow was visible all over her body. Her hair took on a faint green sheen, but her skin appeared a very light shade of green, varying from yellowish to mint, depending on the light. Of course, she was freaked out about that for a long time, but eventually she learned to live with it…or so it seemed. That might have been one of the many things that pushed her over the edge when she was eighteen.

Mervin never really got over his mutation. His skin turned purple and his hair turned the color of red wine. His image generator was the most powerful and most complex of the whole family (since, as Shego, Sherry never had one in the first place.) His violet skin and claret hair stuck out like a sore thumb in almost any crowd. He was so disgusted with it, he sometimes even left the generator on when he was in costume as Mego.

Grimly, Herman mounted the stairs. What he had just learned effected him and he had to know. He just wondered how the twenty-year-old was going to take the news.

The door to Mervin's apartment was open, so he went on in. If the younger man wanted privacy, he knew to shut and lock his door. He was sitting at his desk in the den area, drinking from a large bottle of flavored water.

"Can't a guy have a little 'me' time once and a while, Hego? You don't see me barging into your house at all hours."

"Sorry. Your door was open."

"Knocking still works. So, who was that on the phone? Don't bother saying you weren't. You just plain don't know how to talk softly. Was it her?"

Herman nodded. "Yes."

Mervin got up, pacing the room. "So, what did she want?"

"You really should be sitting down for this."

"What, you're going to tell me she's pregnant?"

"Actually, Mego, that's exactly what she called about." He replied with a slightly sheepish grin.

Mervin was nonplussed. "And she actually talked to you about it? Hego…Herman, she doesn't even like you."

"That's ridiculous. Have I ever treated her like anything other than family?"

Mervin held up his hands. "Oh, give me a break. So, why'd she tell you, and not me? It's not like I'm going to be the one to do anything about it."

"Mego, can you for once in your life thing of something besides yourself? This is important. There's going to be a child, and that child stands a chance to inherit the glow power. You saw how our little brothers were when they gained their powers at six. Imagine an infant with that kind of ability."

"I prefer not to think along those lines."

"Well, you are going to have to think about it. She's pregnant, she's having the baby and that means we are all going to have to deal with it in some way or another."

Mervin flopped down on his ratty couch. Over the last several years, Herman has been after him to get rid of it, but he wouldn't be swayed. He bought it fair and square, even got it up to his room pretty much by himself. It was his couch and when he actually got his own place, it was going with him. Duct tape patches and all. "Great. Just great. I think that my life is going great for once and this happens. Why does everyone always end up coming to me with stuff like this?" He held a finger up at his older brother. "If you ask me, this is her fault, not mine."

"It is not about whose fault it is, Mervin. This is about family."

"If you ask me, Herman, she's made her bed. Now she has to lie in it." He crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back on the bed pillow he kept there instead of a throw pillow.

"I cannot believe you would say something like that. Sometimes I think you were named the most appropriately of us all. Every thing about you is 'me' this and 'me' that. You have got to be the single most selfish person I have ever known."

"I just go with my strengths, bro. Gotta look out for number one."

"Mervin, she's your sister, for crying out loud."

"No, she's not."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

He sat back up, looking his brother square in the eye. "Look, Herman, the only ones in this whole family who are related are Wesley and Wendell. Their not related to me by blood, I'm not related to you by blood and Sherry isn't related to any of us by blood. We were all adopted. It's one thing for me to think of you guys as my brothers, but Sherry spat in all of that. She chose not to be out sister any more, and you know what? That hurts. It's like she cut each and every one of us off, just because it suited her.

"Now, let me guess. She's in trouble with some random guy she's been sleeping around with. Oh dear God, please tell me it's not with that ugly blue guy that came to pick her up at Go Mountain."

"Good heavens no. Neil Argus is the father."

"Oh. Man…I thought he was dead."

"He is, but he is still the father. Sherry was quite specific about that. I would guess she would know."

Mervin leaned back again. "So what does she want us to do about it? She coming back here? She need money? What? Now that the chips are down, she's coming crying back to us?"

"No, she simply called to let me know what was happening. She's known for some time, but she finally just wanted to check in with us. She may think she's nothing but a foul mercenary, prone to claiming she's the blackest form of evil, but deep down, she's still Sherry Godfrey, our sister, the same sister who used to sing to you when you were having nightmares. The same sister who bought you a bicycle with the money she was going to use to buy a junior prom dress. Look at it this way, Mervin. We are going to be uncles."

He laughed slightly. "I'm already one of those. At least with your kid I get to visit sometimes. Sherry's going to be on the lam probably for the rest of her life, if somebody doesn't catch her first."

"I am afraid I must agree. Just wanted to tell you about that, though it hurts to hear you talking about her that way."

"Eh, I'm just cranky. I've been trying to call Bonnie since we got done with the training this evening, but she's not picking up."

"I hope everything is going well between the two of you. It was quite interesting that she was leaving here late Sunday morning."

Mervin blushed slightly. "Things are going better than great. For the first time in my life, I'm thinking I might be in love."

"Really? Are you certain you are thinking with your heart, and not other body parts?"

"Let's leave my body parts out of this, okay. Yeah, we had some fun this weekend, but it has a lot more to do with me wanting to be with her. I think about her constantly during the day. In class, here at home, during the exercise."

"Yes, your mind did seem to be elsewhere."

"Look, bro, I'm sorry, but…it's a new thing and I don't want to foul it up or to jinx it, but I think we've got something good brewing here. God, I never knew I could make time with a girl…a woman that hot, and on top of all that, she's smart, funny and she's totally into me. Finally somebody is smiling at me!"

Herman smiled. He had seen that between the two of them when Bonnie first showed up at his restaurant. "Just be careful, Mervin."

"We are…well, she is."

"Not what I mean. When feelings are this intense, it doesn't take much to make it go sour, especially here at the beginning. Then too, ask yourself one question. Are you falling for her for you, or are you falling in love with her for her?"

"Huh?"

"Think about it. I'm heading home to my wife. Have a good evening…and don't give up trying to call her. I'm sure she's just busy with some things. She is a college student, and you know how that goes."

"Yeah, sure do." He smiled as his brother shut the door. Glancing at the clock, he realized it was already past eleven. There was always the chance that Bonnie was in bed, but they sometimes just sat and yapped on the phone well into the wee hours of the morning. He hoped he could reach her, since it really was too late to make his way over to the campus. Eight o'clock classes meant he did have to get some sleep that night.

He frowned when her number went to voicemail once more. He left a couple messages at first, but he didn't want to be one of those desperate sounding guys who left hundreds, filling the inbox up with the same repeated entreaty. He simply lay back on his couch and left his cell-phone sitting on his chest. He watched the clock count down to eleven thirty, then called again. By midnight, he called one more time, then stuck the phone on its charger and headed off to his shower. He would catch up to Bonnie at school sometime during the day. Their classes really didn't give them too many chances to cross paths, but he had some idea of where she should be.

Mervin started the water, thinking about the shower he had before going to bed Saturday night. There was something extra special about having his back scrubbed so carefully by someone else.

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Bonnie sat on her bed in her darkened dorm room, watching the caller ID of her phone light up once more. She called every doctor she could think of who was in her insurance plan. She was almost ready to go to the campus clinic, but the soonest they would be able to see her for a non-emergency was Thursday.

Besides that, the best she could come up with was on Wednesday morning. That would have to do. In the mean time she was going to have to find a nearby drug store and purchase a home pregnancy test. She had to know, and soon. The campus store didn't have much and were out of the one test they carried in their meager over-the-counter drug section. There were probably quite a few coeds in the same boat as she was.

She lost count of how many times she thought about calling Mervin. On one hand she wanted desperately to talk to him, to have him hold her in his arms and tell her it was going to be okay. On the other, she was scared this would tear him away from her. If that happened, everything would be over. If he wasn't willing to stand by her in her hour of need, what good was he as a man? It was something she knew she really should know about his character, but she was afraid to ask that particular question just yet. She wanted to be loved and she wanted to give love. What they had forged so far was new and fragile and she desperately wanted to protect it.

What if she wasn't? What if it was just as simple as her spending too much time eating rich foods with her new boyfriend? After all, he had gotten her addicted to Go City style hot dogs with their mountain of toppings. He had been taking her to nice restaurants on occasion, or indulging her sometimes craving for greasy old Bueno Nacho food. What if she was in the last throes of puberty and was just naturally putting a tiny bit of weight on? What if she went running to him with news that she was expecting when she really wasn't? Would she look like a fool?

The calls were the worst. What was he thinking when she didn't answer. Earlier in the evening she could just say she left the phone in her room while she was out doing some research, but as the hours ticked on, he certainly had to suspect she was back at her room by then.

At midnight the phone rang once more. She picked it up and almost opened it, but hesitated a moment too long, finding it had already switched over to voicemail again. Mervin was actually trying to play it cool. So far he had only left a couple messages, though for once she would have liked to have heard his voice again, if only to hear him pleading for her to call him back.

What was she going to tell him if he found her before or after class in the morning? If he knew something was wrong and she was keeping it from him, he might begin to suspect something was wrong with their relationship. Yet she was going to have to talk to him sooner or later, no matter what the truth turned out to be.

Was she going to tell him if the test came back negative? She didn't know. Earlier that day she had a boyfriend who she thought she could be falling in love with. Now she had a boyfriend she was too scared to talk to when she needed somebody the most.

Bonnie spent the rest of the night staring at the digital clock on her nightstand, clutching her pillow like it was the old ratty kitty doll she had gotten rid of when she was twelve, wanting to seem more grown up.

She actually wished she had that kitty to talk to that night.

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Bonnie Rockwaller (and all Kim Possible Characters) © Disney


	15. Doctor, Doctor

**_Redeemable_: Part XV**

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_Why was it that doctors always wanted to see you in these damned smocks?_

The answer was quite simple, actually. Many of them liked the power that came along with their profession, and nothing made that more apparent than making somebody sit and wait wearing nothing but a gown that opened in the back. It also made it impossible to sit anywhere but the paper covered examination table in the middle of the tiny room.

What made matters worse was that the particular office she finally made an appointment with wanted to do a full physical, including a gynecological exam. She shuddered at the thought, especially in light of the fact it had not been that long since she had one in order to get a prescription for her birth control pills. An extra quake rattled her body thinking of the 's' words; stirrups and speculum.

_All I want to do is find out if I'm pregnant or not_ Bonnie thought over and over. The big deal was that it would take more than a week for her medical records to get there. That seemed outrageous in that day and age, but the secretary, nurse or whoever it was that scheduled her appointment said it had to do with very strict privacy laws. So, she could either set up a full work-up or she could wait for those records. After all, if something minor had come up in the intervening months, it could be caught. Wouldn't that be worth it?

_Being pregnant by a superhero I've know for just about a month is definitely not something minor_. She finally got to the drug store Tuesday morning, but found that the kit was meant to be used when she first went to the bathroom in the morning. The nature of home pregnancy tests was just not something she ever considered before. That meant, for the test to work correctly, she'd have to wait until Wednesday anyhow to find out. She still tried the test anyway, but, unlike what the product advertised, the results were inconclusive. There was supposed to be a plus sign or a minus sign. Neither appeared. All that gross-ness for nothing!

That meant waiting for the good old fashioned blood tests. That also meant waiting for a lab to process her blood work. With all the other tests that would be done on her O-Positive, she was sure something else would show up, diverting her doctor's attention away from what she really wanted to know. Just her luck, her cholesterol would be out of whack and he would want to put her on something for that, especially considering her recent weight gain.

That alone was worse than she had figured. When she had been to her old doctor at the beginning of summer, the old-fashioned balance scale had read just a hair under her usual hundred five pounds. That had been wearing her regular clothes sans shoes. The nurse who took her vitals as she was checked in put her on a much more sophisticated digital scale than the one at the gym, and it read one hundred nineteen. Granted, her summer clothes didn't amount to much weight-wise, but to be almost fifteen pounds heavier than normal?

She couldn't help but think what Kim Possible might say if she saw her former rival like that. They always weighed about the same, though Possible was somewhat more slender and rather poorly endowed in the chest. Bonnie could only think she made up the difference with muscle mass, especially in her boyish legs. But the fact she was heavier…considerably heavier in her estimation rankled her almost as much as the prospect of gaining much more if she did turn out to be expecting.

This wasn't the way she had figured it would happen. She always assumed she would marry a doctor or lawyer after university and by her mid to late twenties she would be sitting in a doctor's office wanting to hear the good news. Instead, she was sitting there at almost nineteen, alone, wishing her boyfriend was there holding her hand.

Would he do that? The question bothered her more than she cared to admit. Mervin was almost two years older than her, but he was still a kid. Neither of them could legally purchase alcohol, yet there was the distinct possibility they would be bringing new life into the world. For the first time since she had lost her virginity the previous spring she was actually thinking her parents had been right about sex. Her only solace at the moment was that she really enjoyed the process of getting to that point.

What was going to happen? Was she going to experience morning sickness, or was that just a wive's tale? If she was already gaining weight, did that mean it happened the very first time? The other two guys she had been with, she used protection, and so did the guys. With Mervin it had been a spur of the moment sort of thing, relying totally on her meds to protect her. At the time, she had totally forgotten that she really didn't trust the pills completely, having read the pamphlets cover to cover.

"Where the heck is he anyway?" She asked the empty room. To make matters worse, the room did not have a clock, and Bonnie wasn't prone to wearing a watch. Even her cell phone was out of the question since they made her turn it off when she came in since it supposedly could interfere with some of the medical equipment there. She had serious doubts that was actually the case, thinking it a lot more likely the doctors didn't want to be bothered with people constantly talking on the things. It seemed that she would have been broken of her habitual non-stop use of the little devices when they were all-but banned during her senior year at Middleton High School, but the moment she graduated it seemed to jump right back to her ear.

It was especially bad since she wanted to try and call Mervin.

Her boyfriend seemed to be one of the types who did not like to use voice-mail. His own phone would ring and ring until a voice finally came on and said "The customer is not available on the network." She gave up trying around dinner time Tuesday night. She kept an eye open as she made her way to and from the dorm area cafeteria, but since he didn't live on campus, it wasn't likely she would see him there. He had a lab that evening, so she thought about staking the science building out, but decided against that. Why, she couldn't quite figure. Maybe she didn't want to seem desperate.

Then again, maybe she was. Why, in her time of need, did he suddenly seem to disappear? There were no training exercises planned for that day or night. It was just like those terrible seeming days right after they met where they couldn't catch up with each other.

Bonnie jumped slightly when there was a soft knock at the door. A doctor in a white lab coat with the name "Dr. Madison" stitched on it let himself into the room.

"Bonne Delia Rockwaller?"

"Just Bonnie, thank you." She replied softly. She hated even giving them her full, formal name, but that was what her insurance policy was in and didn't want to chance having the claim denied. It was going to cost enough after insurance to get her car out of the shop later that day.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, but we've been incredibly busy, and these sorts of things don't always run according to schedule. So, I see you're here for a full physical work-up?"

"That's what they told me. Main thing, Doctor, I just want to know if I'm pregnant or not."

He chuckled slightly. "Guess that means a definite yes on the sexually active question. So, let's cut to the chase then, shall we?" He sat down on a stool opposite the examination table. He looked up at her from his notes. "You're not particularly comfortable, are you?"

"No sir. My old doctor was a lady doctor…a female doctor…a doctor for women who was a woman."

He shook his head slightly. "I understand. We'll get this over as quickly as we can. Just have to satisfy proper protocol with a new patient. So, what makes you think you're pregnant? Have you taken a home test?"

"I've…been with this guy for almost a month now…uh, I tried one of those things, but I think I did something wrong."

"Have you missed a cycle? Experienced morning sickness? Strange mood swings? Sudden weight gain? Inability to concentrate?"

"Not sure, no, maybe, yes and definitely, in that order." She answered.

"Says here you're taking birth control pills. Have you missed dosages? Or perhaps you're taking some other medications that might interfere with their efficacy?"

Bonnie shook her head. "I've taken them religiously since I went on them at the beginning of summer, and that's the only medicine I take, except some pills I take for cramping when I…you know."

He scribbled some notes in her file. "You said you don't know about the missed cycle. Are you saying it was light?"

"Very light, but that's why I don't know. It's been that way ever since I went on the pill."

"Sounds like your prescription is too strong. Pending what we learn, I may have to reduce your dosage. Did you take any of that medicine this month."

"No sir. Like I said, it was very light. I didn't even get very PMSy this time around, which is unusual for me."

He handed her a piece of paper. "Take that to the testing room. It's down the hall, then take a right. Can't miss it. They're going to draw some blood, which is still the absolute best test, but that can take up to a week to get the results, depending on how backed up the lab is. They'll also give you a test that is very much like the one you tried to use at home. That will give us a pretty good idea very quickly what we're dealing with.

Biting her lower lip and holding the back of her gown together, she followed the doctor's directions, dreading what she might find out.

A phone was ringing somewhere, making her wish she could pick one up and try calling Mervin again.

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All he could think of was how painful his current predicament was.

One moment, they had been on a routine patrol of the city. Mervin hated patrol, thinking it was a waste of time. Go City's finest were on the ground, doing the same thing. He always thought it better if they simply waited in a central location like, say, the Go Tower instead of tooling around in that ridiculous jet. His notion was borne out when a call came in from clear across town. Even with the powerful airplane, it was going to take longer to get to the location than if they scrambled from their headquarters. That was just one of the many reasons he thought he would be a better team leader than Hego.

It rankled him even more when they found out they were being called in for yet another routine crime. With Aviarius in prison, most of the other super-freak type villains had gone to ground. There also seemed to be a lasting effect on the villain community when that freaky blue guy his sister worked for was taken down more than a year earlier.

That meant, when things got hairy with the more conventional bay guys, they were quickly called in. That worried him more than he let on to his brothers…

…the 'normal' baddies were actually more dangerous than super-villains. It was really pretty simple. The really freaky ones always had a grand scheme on how they would make off with whatever goods they were after, or with some take-over-the-city or take-over-the-world plot. Common criminals simply used guns, and for the most part, they weren't afraid to use them.

None of the four brothers were the least bit bulletproof. In fact, the only thing any of them had going for them was Hego's apparent fast healing. Shego had the same thing, but that didn't do anything to protect the Wegos, or more importantly, him!

It also didn't help that he did not have the most effective offensive power. He could catch the bad guys by surprise by growing back to full size before they could spot him, but that was about it. Otherwise, he was much more of a scout, reconnoitering the situation before Hego went crashing in. He may have been prone to playing up his abilities with others, but he actually held no particular illusions his power was terribly much use.

This time it was a hostage situation where a bank robbery had gone bad. People were injured and at least three gunmen were inside the building. Mego listened with only half an ear as the head negotiator filled his older brother in on the operation. He grinned to himself when he realized he was the only one with a useful power. Making duplicates of himself or intense brute strength would afford them nothing.

Shrinking down to just about an inch tall, he looked for a way in. One of the biggest problems he normally faced when it came to modern buildings was the fact they were so well sealed against the environment. Being an inch tall made it possible to get in through the cracks, but those cracks had to exist in the first place.

The other drawback to being so small was apparent once he finally squeezed his way under the weather stripping of the front door. What was really a lobby about seventy feet across seemed like a mile to him. He felt like a sitting duck as he sprinted across the polished tile floor.

Small as he was, the coppery smell of blood was overpowering. There wasn't much of it, at least from the perspective of a full-size person, but there was enough to almost make him sick. They didn't have to deal with that when they took on the likes of the Mathter or Disco Neck Ted. Sure, he could end up bruised and banged up after a fight with a bunch of cronies, but nobody ever actually got shot.

The three gunmen weren't paying attention to the bank guard. It pretty much seemed they just assumed he was okay, since it appeared he had only been shot in the arm. That wasn't what Mego saw, however. He saw a man hurt, in obvious pain and in need of medical attention. Doing it slowly, so his glow would not give away his position, he returned to his normal size, just out of view behind a counter.

Putting a hand on the man's good shoulder, he started concentrating. What he was attempting was one of the hardest things he could do with his power. When he first gained them and learned how to shrink, about half the time only his body would shrink, leaving him naked in a pile of clothes. It took some time, but he finally learned how to control it to a degree he no longer had to think about his clothing when he shrank. It also helped that his purple and black uniform was specially attuned to it, making it easier still for him when he was wearing it.

Making other things shrink was a bit tougher. He had to actually touch it and carefully extend his glow around the object, basically making it part of the dimensional fold his power created. He didn't actually shed mass when he shrank – that would create a huge burst of energy if that were to happen. Instead, he shifted partially into another dimension, one where size and mass were not so closely tied, relative to the world around him. He had a better handle on how it worked since he was taking advanced physics courses, but he still didn't pretend to understand it completely.

Shrinking other people was the toughest of all. He didn't feel a thing when he shrank, but other people always complained of disorientation and nausea. Hego said it was like the feeling he got in the pit of his stomach when riding a roller coaster when it happened. What's more, the shrinkee had to remain perfectly still, and remain in contact with Mego or they would instantly snap back to full size, which could be dangerous without the purple glow field to protect them.

He had to do it slowly as well. He could shrink pretty much instantly, but in doing so his glow would pretty much light up the room, alerting the gunmen to his presence. There was also the danger they might come to check on the injured guard. If they saw him slowly shrinking…

He got down as small as he dared – about four inches tall. Hego called that his 'Micronaut' size, though the younger man had no idea what he was talking about. The guard moaned in pain as he threw him over his shoulder, but at their size the sound did not carry.

By the time he got him to the door, he realized the other problem. There was no way they would fit under the door at their size, and even if he could shrink further down with his burden, there was always the chance he would break contact. If they were in the process of squeezing under the door when that happened, the unfortunate guard would be cut in half!

Taking a chance, Mego shut off his power, instantly snapping him back to full size. He hit the door hard, sending it flying open as he raced back out to the waiting police. He felt more than heard a couple bullets whizzing by him as he fled. Moments later, he was back behind the police line, delivering the guard to waiting EMTs.

"Good work, Mego." Hego clapped him on the back. "What did you see?"

Mego sat down on the bumper of a police car, trying to catch his breath. He had just been shot at! He was supposed to be getting ready for a major Physics test, not doing the police department's job.

"I counted about twelve hostages that I could see. If somebody's on the floor behind the counter, I couldn't tell. There were three men with masks and guns in there."

"What kind of weapons did they have?" The police captain asked.

"Uh, I dunno. Guns…automatics."

"Assault rifles?" He asked, with a nervous glance at the bank.

"No, no. I mean automatic pistols. Like you've got, the kind you stick the clip into the handle instead of a cylinder."

"What caliber?" The captain queried.

"How am I supposed to know. I'm a superhero, not a cop."

He put his hand on the younger man's shoulder. "You did good, Mego. We're just going to have to get you some weapons training."

Mego watched as the policeman and his brother went off to plan a potential assault, if the negotiations broke down. _Weapons training? Was he actually serious?_

The past few weeks had set him to actually thinking about his future. How much longer could he go on playing hero. Sure, the power he had carried with it a certain amount of responsibility, but how far was too far? He wasn't planning on becoming a cop. He would have much rather been something simple, something normal that brought home a decent paycheck so he could live a normal life. Was it even possible for a guy with violet skin who happened to be able to shrink at will to have such?

That made him think about Bonnie. It still bothered him that he couldn't get in touch with her the night before. Then the patrol had come along and he left his cell phone sitting on his bed. The only connection he had with the rest of the world at that moment was his Team Go communicator, and that piece of junk could only tie into the Go Tower mainframe or the emergency bands. Whoever designed it didn't think that maybe there might be a need to make a simple phone call from time to time.

Wandering further from the scene, he started casting around, looking for a pay phone. Even five years earlier they would be at every corner. Then, as cell phones reached almost total saturation, they disappeared, seemingly overnight. Just what were people going to do if their batteries died or they lost the damned things?

Finally, he spotted one. It was completely out of view of the crime scene, but he didn't care. That was a job for the police, not for heroes trained to go after super-freaks. He endangered himself to help a guy who had a minor gunshot wound. They didn't have the skills or the abilities to go into a situation like that. If Hego went in, blue glow blazing, he'd likely get shot for his troubles, or worse, get some of the hostages killed.

Mego noticed something out of the corner of his eye as he picked up the receiver. His first thought was 'gun,' but he quickly recognized the device being leveled on him by a man dressed totally in black.

"Power Canceller" was his last thought as somebody clubbed him from behind. Those words repeated in his mind when he came to and immediately tried to shrink to get out of his bonds.

It wasn't working. He was stuck!

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Bonnie Rockwaller (and all Kim Possible Characters) © Disney


	16. GoOperation

**_Redeemable_: Part XVI**

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Bonnie straightened herself up as she reached the door of the tower. She had already been calling for almost an hour straight as she made her way from the clinic. The fact it kept cutting in and out on the train was to be expected, but the line just kept ringing and going to the away message when it actually did work.

She thought about going ahead and picking up her car, but that meant parking a formerly new mustang in a part of town she really didn't trust, so she was forced to meander through the city on the interminably slow trains, then walk further than she was comfortable doing in her flats to get to the water taxi. On top of all that, it was starting to rain. It wasn't a storm or anything like that, but a slow, dank mist that enshrouded the city, turning everything gloomy and gray.

Out on the water it was actually worse. The wind blowing off the lake was cold, probably coming straight out of Canada, carrying with it the hesitant, misty showers. The day had started out pleasantly warm, like summer was still desperately trying to hang on. Bonnie had on one of her more modest everyday dresses, but that was still not enough. Out in the open, in the full force of the gale, she wished she had some of her winter gear on.

She was holding out hope that Mervin would be home. She really needed to talk to him, especially after what she learned that morning, though at that very moment as she picked her way across the otherwise barren island, she would much rather just cuddle up with him on his shabby couch.

Hesitating for a moment, she studied the panel beside the door. When her boyfriend brought her there before, all he had to do was put his hand on the biometric scanner and make his hand glow for a moment. After the debacle that involved Kim Possible, they added a simpler biometric scanner to it, so they wouldn't have to rely on their powers to get in, but that still left her out. Three weeks of dating was not enough for him to attempt cajoling his older brother into adding her to the system. She was welcome when he was actually there, but not otherwise.

Normally that would be just fine with her. As much as she liked him and liked being with him, she wasn't quite ready to be 'given the key to his apartment.' Their physical relationship aside and her genuine affection for him, she really didn't know him all that well. Or at least she hoped she knew him well enough to trust him with what she was about to tell him.

There wasn't much cover outside, and she was starting to actually get a little wet just standing there in the wind and rain. She started at the panel, wondering exactly how she would signal that she wanted in. It wasn't like there was actually any kind of obvious doorbell there. How was it that the government go-betweens actually came and went there? Did they have to be escorted in by a member of the team as well? That seemed kind of strange considering they were comprised of a twenty-eight year old, a twenty-year old and two teenagers, and had been in that particular business for a decade already.

Finally, not knowing what else to do, she simply stretched out her hand and put it on the stylized palm-print. There was no light or any kind of sensation, but somehow she knew her hand had been scanned by the device. She didn't expect the door to open for her, but at least somebody should know that there was somebody out there wanting to get in.

"Haven't these people ever heard of a porch?" She asked the lonely wind, rubbing her arms and legs together, trying to get warm. What on Earth had she been thinking that morning? The city was known for its wind, and for weather like this rolling off the massive lake. She should have at least worn pants, though it had been her practice ever since he mother up and decided it was time for her to start seeing a 'female' doctor to wear a simple dress.

"Come on, Mervin, please be home, please." She stared up at what might have been a video pick-up, hoping somebody was looking at her right then. It suddenly dawned on her she had no earthly idea how to call the water taxi back if the tower turned out to be empty. The only thing she could think of was calling directory assistance. Whenever she left the tower before, the taxi had already been there waiting, probably called for in some convenient way by her boyfriend. It certainly wasn't staying for her, having pulled off and heading for shore just as soon as she stepped off and paid.

Growing even more upset and impatient, Bonnie slapped her hand down on the palm-print again. "Come on, you people? I'm cold and I'm upset and I want inside!" She screamed at the suspected pickup.

"Miss Rockwaller?" a disembodied voice asked over a hidden speaker.

"Wego? Sorry, I don't remember your first names."

"It's Wesley. Sorry, but Mervin isn't here right now."

"We thought he was with you." A nearly identical voice completed.

"No, I haven't seen him since Sunday. Would you please let me in? I'm freezing out here."

"I don't know if we can." One started.

"Hego isn't here right now." The other completed for him.

"Listen, please let me in, or call the boat back, or something. I'm going to catch hypothermia like this. I promise, I'll just wait in your foyer, or whatever you call it."

She waited in silence for what was likely just a couple minutes, but felt more like half an hour while the two obviously debated what they were going to do. Finally, the door slid aside, letting her out of the miserable weather. It took what seemed like an eternity for it to close, shutting the chill breeze off at last, leaving her there, moist, but not quite dripping wet at the entrance of the main grand hall of the tower.

The twin brothers were seated at the large round table in the middle of the hall, their feet propped up on the table. With their image devices and civilian clothes they looked more like Possibles younger brothers than she cared to admit. It wasn't that they physically looked like those two younger boys, but that they were absolutely identical twins, right down to wearing almost exactly the same clothing. They were so similar she wondered if they really were twins, and not permanently split copies of one child. She seemed to remember Mervin telling her that wasn't the case, but she must not have been paying attention at the time.

"Don't you two have any idea where your brother is?"

"Nope…"

"Hego figured he took off to get to a class, or to go out with you again." The other finished for him.

Bonnie held up her hands. "Like I said, I haven't seen him since I left Sunday morning. He's not answering his phone at all."

The closest Wego just shrugged. "I bet he left his phone in his room."

"He's got a bad habit of doing that when we're on missions."

Something that sounded like a large elevator started high above them, making Bonnie look up at the ceiling. It was soon followed by a loud roaring sound, in turn followed by the sound of powerful hydraulics once more.

"Hego's here." They both chorused to each other.

"Well, good. Maybe he has some answers." Despite what she told them before she crossed the large room and pulled the one chair she had never seen used out and sat down. The brothers looked at her dubiously as she sat in the green, high-backed chair but said nothing, only breaking out in a pair of wide grins.

It didn't take long before the large, blue-clad man stepped from one of the many elevators in the complex. "Miss Rockwaller, I wasn't expecting to see you here. Is Mervin with you?"

"No, I was thinking maybe you knew where he was. Like I told the Wegos, I haven't seen him since I left here Sunday."

Hego scratched his blue hair. "That's strange. I was certain he would have gone to see you when he missed the after-action briefing."

"After-action?"

"Yes. It's standard procedure after we have dealt with a situation for us to go over what we might have done differently. It's part of what we call 'Go-operation.'"

"Right. Sorry, no. If he left, he didn't come to see me."

"Wasn't he in class this morning?" His brother asked, his hair suddenly turning black as he adjusted the device on his wrist.

"I don't know. We don't have many classes close together and…I had something else to take care of off-campus this morning."

"That is strange."

"You mean to tell me you didn't think something was up when he didn't show up for the action-thingy? If it's your standard procedure…?"

"It's not strange for Mervin. He doesn't care much for proper procedure. I've tried talking to him about it in the past, but what am I going to do? Throw him off the team? We've already lost our sister and it would be a shame for us to break up again like we did when she first left."

Bonnie put both hands on the table. "So he's not here, he's not at school. Where the heck is he anyway?"

"It's a big city, and he's a grown man, Miss Rockwaller. I'm sure you realize that." He shot her a look that she interpreted as very slightly disapproving. That itself seemed strange, considering how the older brother did his best to bring them together at first. Maybe she was reading too much into the situation. Or perhaps the extraordinarily muscular man was just a bit old-fashioned.

She stood up, looking at the door. "I'm sorry I disturbed you then. Are you certain there's no other way to get in touch with him?"

"Have you tried his cell?"

"He left it here again." One of the Wegos answered for her.

"Did you think to try his link, Wendell?"

Bonnie looked at the twins again, wondering how the big man even told the two of them apart. Then again, she knew they had been adopted as infants, so he likely knew them better than anyone and could see some subtle clues as to which was which.

Hego looked upwards, shaking his head. "I wonder why we even bother with the training sessions sometimes." He leaned over the table and touched one of the controls. "Go Tower to Mego. Come in Mego."

He waited a few moments, a frown crossing his classically heroic features. "That's strange. The system should have automatically linked up with his communicator."

"Maybe he forgot it too." Bonnie suggested helpfully.

"No, it's part of his uniform." He touched his own wrist, indicating the hidden circuitry there. "He was in uniform for patrol and for the bank robbery we responded to yesterday. That is the 'action' we were supposed to debrief on before he skipped out."

"What does that mean, then? Did it break down?"

"No. The unit has triple-redundancies built in and is powered by his Go Team Glow. As long as he has his uniform on it will work."

"Well duh, maybe if he's gone someplace he took it off."

Hego shook his head once more. "The batteries would retain their charge for several days, plus, if he was out and about he would keep the uniform with him just in case there was a call." He tried the communicator again, not getting anything once more.

"I don't believe this." Bonnie muttered, getting up once more. "Guess it was nice while it lasted. Can somebody call the boat for me? I'm going back to the dorm. Tell your brother when he comes in he needs to call me, but if I don't hear from him in a couple…"

"Miss Rockwaller…Bonnie," Hego started, "Mervin has been known to skip out of meetings, but it is not like him to simply run off like this. You may not know this, but his school work is very important to him. He did not plan on being a superhero forever. In fact, I suspect he may move on as soon as he graduates. He does not miss class lightly."

"Like I said, I don't know if he was in class or not. I…I just think he's decided he doesn't want to hear from me. I thought this time it would be different, but this has happened to me too many times before."

"Bonnie…"

"Don't, okay? I know you wanted us to get together and I thank you for trying, but maybe this is just for the best." She was trying to prevent it, but her voice was starting to break. Tears were already welling in the corners of her eyes. Before they could say anything else, she broke for the door, hoping she could figure out how to open it from the inside.

Hego was faster than she gave him credit for being. He didn't leap in front of her like he did that day of the car-jacking, but he still managed to interpose himself between her and the entrance.

"Bonnie…Mervin is not ducking out on you."

"How can you know that? You don't even know me…I can be a horrible, terrible bitch and he's seen that. It was bound to happen eventually. I guess he finally figured out who I really am, that I'm not redeemable despite trying to leave that part of my life behind."

"Bonnie, he's in love with you." He said quietly, in a gentler voice than she ever heard from the normally quite loud man.

"That's not possible. How can he love somebody like me? I'm a selfish little bitch who has to get her way no matter what. He hasn't even known me for a month, how could he possibly love me? The only people I've even seen in love took a lifetime to get there."

He put a hand on her shoulder. It was softer and warmer than she assumed it would be. "He told me. Mervin may be an ego-centric, selfish jerk sometimes, but he's still my brother and he does talk to me. He knows how you can be, but he has seen past that. Bonnie, I don't think…in fact I know he's not skipping out on you, or on this family.

"Bonnie, I think something has happened…"

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Bonnie Rockwaller (and all Kim Possible Characters) © Disney


	17. Who Builds These Places?

**_Redeemable_: Part **

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"These people are so weird." Bonnie sat at the round table in 'Shego's' chair, absently dragging her carefully manicured fingernails across the smooth, hard surface, her chin resting on the edge of the table. "Scratch that." She said to the empty chamber. "These people are just plain stupid."

Hego certainly didn't seem stupid. Granted, any single responsibility he held didn't take a genius. He was, after all, just the manager of a fast-food restaurant outside of being part of Team Go. That wasn't something she held in very high regard considering they would take in the likes of a fifteen-year-old Ron Stoppable and that pathetic nerd who had actually run the place since he was in high school. Sure, it was the flagship of a newer, larger, more refined version of the Tex-mex eatery, but it was still just _Bueno Nacho_.

Yet she couldn't help but admire how he seemed able to juggle that, being a superhero and a small family of his own. She felt a little sorry for the young mother waiting at home for her husband with a small child, but what did she expect. A single life divided three ways could only go so far, even if he was able to bench-press a main battle tank.

Some of the respect she had been feeling for her boyfriend's older brother went right out the non-existent window when he ordered the twins into their uniforms (she was still astounding at how fast they managed to change) and barreled out the door to a conveniently waiting boat. It didn't take her long to realize they just went out to search one of the largest cities on Earth on foot, leaving behind a huge array of tracking and communications equipment.

What's more, she was told to stay where she was. Being a 'civilian' she had no business charging into battle. That was perhaps the only smart thing Hego had said before they left, except that she really had nothing to do in the tower except sit there and mope, which is pretty much what she did.

That didn't last too long, however. Frustrated, she grabbed her purse and headed for the door. She stopped short when she realized it had the same panel inside as it did outside. There was no handle, no manual control for the door. "What kind of idiot designed this place?" Just to be sure, she put her hand on the palm scanner. Just as before, there was no light, no sound, nothing to indicate her biometrics had even been scanned.

"Oh, just great!" She hadn't even considered there might not be a way to get out of the tower. She was ready to simply go out into the rain, call directory service and have the taxi come pick her up, no matter what extra charges she got on her phone. Instead, she was left wondering just how the place even met code.

She looked up, and glowing in an evil red mockery of her predicament was a standard exit sign.

Bonnie didn't even growl, though her knuckles were almost white as she stomped back into the main hall. If there were other ways out of the tower, she couldn't tell what they were. She even tried figuring out what controls on the main table would possibly open the door, but like most high-tech setups, nothing was labeled.

Her hand hovered over the panel for a moment. What if she unwittingly launched some kind of super-weapon against the city? What if, by some strange happenstance, she managed to cut the city's power supply, or activated a hidden weather machine capable of sucking the water right out of the great lakes. Much as she didn't care to admit it, knowing Kim Possible made all those sorts of things seem…possible.

She came very close to trying the controls, just to see what would happen. She could always get the correct one right off the bat and walk right out of there.

Right into the cold, wet rain, probably having to wait fifteen to twenty minutes, if she was lucky, for the boat to actually get there, if it wasn't still tied up with the 'heroes.' All the what-ifs started playing out in her mind; like, what if there were some kind of automated defenses inside or outside, primed to take care of an unauthorized guest? What if some nefarious character already knew about Mervin's secret (sort-of) identity? Would that mean she was in some kind of danger? Suddenly, Hego's insistence she stay there started making a little more sense.

Pride was a different matter altogether. She was trained in self-defense, a talent that was helped by years of intensive ballet study. On top of that, she did have a week-long crash course in Ninjitsu. She held no illusions that she was actually any kind of ninja, but they had taught her a few things.

Bonnie sat back down in the green chair. At first it seemed comfy enough, but after about twenty minutes of sitting in the custom made seat, she realized the Godfrey's prodigal sister might be built a little differently from her. The only thing she had ever seen of the green-hued woman was what was shown on TV, and then the only thing she could tell was that she was slightly taller than Kim and a little bigger up top, though nothing compared to her own generous figure.

Thoughts of her figure brought her right back to the reason she had come out to the island in the first place. She put her hands on her belly, then her hips. Bonnie had come out there simply to give her boyfriend the news, and in the process of discovering her _might_ be in trouble, she had forgotten about it and the implications it might have on how their relationship progressed.

Getting up from the chair, she started walking around. Looking at the huge screen, the various consoles around the massive chamber, she started wondering if any of the brothers actually knew how to use the majority of the equipment in there. Outside of simple communications and perhaps online research, what good would most of that stuff actually do? The team seemed to function best in the field and none of them seemed to be…well…smart enough on the level to use the stuff she saw in there. If they were really smart, they would have hired some kind of back-up team who could man the various stations, providing crucial command and control functions. Just like that fat little boy Kim always talked to on that communicator thingy of hers.

Bored with the massive chamber, and more than a little worried what had become of Mervin, she started exploring. There was a massive staircase that led first to the upper levels of the main hall, then what she had learned was the dormitory level of the tower.

Everything was color coded. There were no names on the doors, but it was pretty obvious, even the first time she came there that the purple door led to Mervin's apartment. Up there, she figured they assumed the security was good enough, so their doors were of a more conventional sort. She let herself into his quarters and sat down heavily on the shabby but comfortable couch he kept in there.

Sitting right in the middle of his coffee table, which looked like a small kitchen table with the legs sawn short, was his cell phone. The external caller ID had a little icon blinking on it, indicating he had missed calls.

Curiosity got the better of her. A person's cell phone was the twenty-first century equivalent of a little black book and despite his constant insistence that she was his first real-real girlfriend, she just couldn't resist knowing what other numbers he had in the phone's memory. She scooped it up in her hand and opened it. It was a different make and model from hers, but most of them worked in pretty much the same way. One touch of a button and she called up the recent missed calls.

There was nothing particularly interesting there. Her number was displayed repeatedly, as was Hego's, though it simply said 'Herm' on the screen. It was his real-life phone, so it made sense if he was going to maintain the pretense that the family had secret identities.

His call list was not all that interesting either. She had been assigned the number one position, and there were numbers for his brothers as well. One item she had to wonder about for a moment, until she realized 'Sherry' was actually his sister, who she knew better as Shego. Closing the phone up she allowed herself a little smug smile. Mervin was actually a bit of a loser until she came along, meaning she was the first to mine that gold. There wasn't another "Kim" around to woo him away from her. He was all hers.

But what did that mean? Was he just another in a string of relationships she would have? Or was she getting into this for the long haul? What if he didn't do what his brother was assuming and finally retire from the life of being a hero? Would she spend the next few years, or perhaps the rest of her life wondering if he was actually going to come home this time?

It was a grim realization that she was doing exactly that, right then and there. It was already like being the wife of a cop or a soldier, sitting alone at home, wondering if this time somebody in an overly starched uniform was going to show up on her doorstep and give her the bad news. Were the other three brothers going to return bearing the bad news?

What was she going to do? It wasn't like she was any kind of hero, despite what those nutcases at Yamanouchi seemed to think. She thought she might have been able to play one once. That was why she had stolen Kim's black power suit thingy when they were at Mount Middleton, only to stuff it into one of her friend's bags before she could either use it or be discovered. She found out that day she was actually a coward, having great power in her hands, yet unable to bring herself to use it in the face of danger, a danger both Kim and Ron went to face almost bare-handed.

Thinking about the black suit with glowing blue bands, she went into Mervin's bedroom. The room itself was a little strange, considering his laid-back personality away from home. The bed was crisply made and there were no clothes strewn about, like there had been when she left several mornings earlier. Obviously, under normal circumstances, he kept it picked up and almost spotlessly clean. Thinking back, it had been that way every time she arrived there after a date, though at the time she assumed he was expecting her and was making the place presentable.

She opened his closet and shook her head. How could somebody design a place as advanced as this and not include walk-in closets? What kind of barbarians are they? The hangers were full of his usual clothes, long pants, long sleeved shirts. Strangely enough, he actually hung up his jeans, rather than folding them in a drawer.

At the far end of the closet rod were two more of his Team Go uniforms. Pulling one out, she held it to her face, breathing deeply, hoping she could pick up his scent from it. She was disappointed to find it only smelled faintly of detergent. Whatever the material was, it didn't seem to keep any of his essence about it.

Knowing she was completely alone, she stripped out of her dress and stepped into the costume. That's really more of what it really was, more so than it was any kind of uniform. She zipped up the diagonal front and went to go look at herself in the mirror.

What was she trying to do? Mervin was somewhat taller than her, and the outfit was terrible tight on her hips and bust, not to mention it really wasn't a super-suit like Kim used from time to time. Mervin had mentioned the fabric was made to work with his power, so to her it really was nothing more than a silly getup that looked like it had been designed in the seventies.

One thing she definitely did not do was pull up the hood. Her hair was still slightly damp and plastered to her head, but she didn't want it further mashed down, with part of it sticking out the top. She also had no intention of wearing the mask portion of the cowl. Who was he trying to fool with the mask anyway?

She pulled on the gloves that were hanging with the uniform, her tiny hands lost in them. Bonnie put her hands on her hips and admired herself in the mirror, shaking her ample hips from side to side, even though the legs were too long and were bunched up around the attached boots, which would require many, many socks to make up the vast difference in the size of their feet.

The cuff of the left sleeve caught her eye. She hadn't paid that much attention to the suit the short time she had seen Mervin in it. There were a series of bumps, and what looked like a tiny screen hidden just under the cuff of the glove. Those must have been the communicator controls Hego had spoken of. Once again her curiosity got the better of her, and she started punching the buttons. The tiny screen lit up before it occurred to her that all she might be doing was to alert the brothers that she was snooping around.

She started to pull on the zipper of the costume so she could put it back and get out of the private quarters when it suddenly felt like the whole outfit was crawling on her body. It was like a thousand fingers were kneading her at once. She screamed, tugging desperately at the zipper, but it was jammed and would not budge.

The sensation only lasted about fifteen seconds, then the suit came to rest. That's when she looked back at the mirror.

Somehow the suit had changed. It still had the same pattern of dark black and purple, but with one important difference. It fit. The waist had contracted, while the bust and hips expanded. Even the boots fit correctly. She looked back at the little screen, which was displaying text "Systems Active."

She sat down on the end of the bed, wondering exactly what she had done. The zipper was still stuck and she didn't want to tear it, though she desperately wanted out of the strange getup. Was this another one of the many security features she was afraid of? What were they going to think when they returned and she was wearing Mervin's 'Mego' costume?

Bonnie buried her face in her hands, sobbing as she realized what she was doing. Her boyfriend could be hurt, or, God forbid, even dead, and what was she doing? Playing dress-up with his clothes. It was worse than when she stole Possible's outfit. Then she wanted to be the hero. She wanted to be the one loved and respected for what she had done. She wanted to be the one who saved the day, only to have learned just how big a coward she actually was.

Was she a coward? She did show up there to give Mervin the news, news that might bring them closer or might drive them apart forever. If she was a coward, would she have simply run away, leaving him in the dark? The worst question was if she would have actually gone through with it when she saw him face to face.

She thought about his face, that slender visage with the slightly down-turned nose, framed with an unruly mop of sometimes brown, sometimes claret colored hair. It was a face that could be handsome, especially when he smiled, or could be downright nasty when he was in a foul mood. Bonnie realized she was exactly the same way. She could be ugly or beautiful, depending on her mood.

Mervin was giving her the opportunity to finally be beautiful more often. He was the chance, the one thing that stood a chance of helping her change her life for the better. Yes. Yes indeed she was going to tell him, and she wasn't going to let him get away when he learned the truth. In that moment, she realized in the space of a few short weeks she had gone from like-liking him to actually falling in love with him. She finally knew it didn't take a lifetime to do that, only finding the person who was the right person, and that was Mervin Godfrey, whether he wanted to spend the rest of his days as a superhero, or as a guy who got up every morning to put on a white shirt and a tie to go to some innocuous office. It wasn't what he did, but who he was. Maybe that was why she had been so attracted to him, why she had done what she had when they first met. Maybe it was her instincts telling her that for once something was right for her.

Bonnie was so lost in her new, liberating epiphany she didn't realize that music was playing faintly. Not knowing she was doing so, she was humming the first couple bars of a certain _Smashmouth_ song.

Her mouth popped open when it came to her that it was her cell phone ringing in her purse. She dashed across the room, digging through it. It may have simply been her parents calling to check up on her, the doctor's office calling with some test results, even though the final results or the blood work wasn't expected for a week, or even Tara calling to dish about her friends, or pining for another opportunity to go home and see her boyfriend.

Most importantly, though, it might be Mervin!

She got it out and flipped the slim Moto-Royal open. "Hello?"

There was nobody there. It sounded like there was an open receiver on the other end for half a moment, but the line simply went dead. She almost threw the tiny flip-phone against the wall, then remembered she had caller ID as well.

There was no name displayed on the tiny screen, only a number she did not recognize. Hoping against hope, she hit the call-back. Unfortunately, all she got was a busy signal. She screamed into the phone when an infuriating voice proclaimed, for a dollar-fifty, she could have the phone company try calling that number until it was no longer busy. Once again she had to fight down the urge to smash her cell to little pieces, but she managed to stay in control.

Giving up on getting out of the purple outfit for the moment, she ran back down the stairs into the main hall. There had to be some way of finding out what that number was.

"Computer? Do you respond to voices?" She felt incredibly silly talking into the empty room that way, but that was how they did in on those silly sci-fi shows. "Come on, Computer. Open the doors, blink the lights, do something to tell me you understand me." She stood there a couple minutes, but nothing happened. She needed something, anything that might satisfy her burning need to know if that may have been Mervin.

"Oy, I'm such a stupid bitch." She snarled, darting back to Mervin's room. Like any normal guy he had a computer terminal there. If the sophisticated computer system of the tower either couldn't or wouldn't help her, there might be other ways.

Fortunately, Mervin was one of those types who always left his system on. She was also hoping it could connect to the internet rather than going through some kind of security firewall. Still, she wasn't sending information out, she was trying to get it.

A small smile crossed her face when she touched the mouse and the screensaver shut off. His 'wallpaper' was a series of photos scanned from a mini-photo booth they had gone to a week earlier. They were both making faces at the camera for most of the shots, though it ended with him getting a dainty kiss on the cheek while he grinned from ear to ear.

Success! The world's most popular search engine popped right up. It wasn't quite as fast as the broadband connection she was used to on the campus, but it was still there. Hastily, she typed the phone number on her cell into the search box. When word got out that people could do that with the service, many had simply had their numbers removed. Still, there was a chance the owner of that line had overlooked it.

She was rewarded with the address of a business; Conyer's Construction, Inc. It had a Go City address, though she had no idea where it might be. She almost called herself a name again when she realized there was an icon for a map.

It was in the warehouse district, possibly even in view of the tower itself. Why would a construction business be calling? That didn't make any kind of sense. Then too, why would their phone be busy? Things should be quiet that time of day considering the weather, and what kind of business had only one line coming in when they relied on communications.

Maybe it was because she found herself involved with self-proclaimed heroes. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but somehow she knew that call had something to do with Mervin. She knew it in her heart.

She rushed back down to the round table and started pushing controls. It only took a moment, but the front door whooshed open, with no other unfortunate problems arising.

Bonnie quickly ran out into the now-heavy rain, frantically dialing information so she could call the boat back.

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Bonnie Rockwaller (and all Kim Possible Characters) © Disney


	18. Im Kinda Tied Up At the Moment

**_Redeemable_: Part XVIII**

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Mego was thankful he was so skinny. The position he was secured in was only mildly painful after a while. His hands were bound behind his back and apparently were secured to something behind him he could not twist enough to see. His ankles had been wrapped in duct tape as well, making one of his feet go to sleep. He tried shifting his position so it would wake up, but that only left him with the excruciating feeling of pins-and-needles as the feeling slowly started returning.

Ten years spent as a 'superhero' and he had been taken down in the space of a few seconds. In ten years he should have learned to be better prepared for that kind of situation. Instead, when the gun-like device in his attacker's hand had gone off, he panicked. His usual response was to rapidly shrink down and find a suitable place to hide. Instantly bereft of his powers, he felt utterly helpless. Why, in all that time, had their benefactors not seen fit to include some kind of conventional combat training along with all the equipment their tower possessed?

Overcoming the moment of terror, he swung a fist at the man, who was clad head to toe in a featureless black outfit similar to that worn by the S.W.A.T. teams he had seen minutes earlier, only without the white letters emblazoned on the front and back. He was also wearing a plain black balaclava that only left his eyes uncovered. Even those weren't visible behind mirrored combat goggles. In all, he looked something like a high-tech ninja, though he didn't believe there was any such thing in the real world. Oh, there were plenty of baddies out there who would pretend to be one, using some kind of martial arts training to make themselves seem competent and mysterious, but there was little place in the world for people trained as mystical assassins.

Be that as it may, the man simply ducked his ill-timed roundhouse. He never saw it coming, but he did feel the rock-like fist as it jammed into his midsection. Mego sprawled backwards, trying to find a way to flee. If his powers were functioning, he would have dropped down to about a foot tall and run between the man's legs, perhaps snapping back to normal size under him, throwing him off his feet.

He backed up slightly, finding himself up against a brick wall. He had to do something fast. Maybe if he faked with his right and struck with his left…

His attacker seemed ready for that as well. He simply blocked with the gun-like ray projector and drove his free hand right at Mego's face. He barely twisted out of the way in time, making a break for it. The man was fast, but he wasn't displaying any kind of special martial-arts moves, at least so far.

None of that mattered with his opponent's speed. Another hammer-blow caught him in the middle of his back, sending him sprawling toward the ground. Scrambling, he just managed to escape getting a knee driven into his spine. The blow still glanced off his midsection, causing a slight crackling sound. He was certain his ribs were bruised, if not outright broken. Hopefully that was just his bone crackling from the abuse.

Flailing wildly, he tried getting back to his feet. Mego wasn't accustomed to direct combat, and when he did get into the fight, he usually had his brothers to back him up, Hego with his impressive strength and the Wegos, creating as many copies of themselves as it took. They always functioned as a team, relying on each other to watch their backs.

_If I had been the leader, I would have made sure we wouldn't be in this position_, Mego thought to himself as he desperately tried to get back on his feet. They had their powers taken from them before, first when they fought the ridiculous Disco Neck Ted and his Village People themed goons, then later when Aviarius tried to steal their powers. They should have learned from that experience. Both times it happened, there were other, outside forces that came to their assistance, making it possible for them to prevail. The first time they were fighting side-by-side with one of the earlier, self-styled teen heroes, a young man who was trained to fight without any special powers. Disco Neck Ted had gone into that battle expecting to overcome his foes by shutting down their powers with the same experimental _Metaform Power Inhibitor_.

Mego found himself wishing he had half the hand-to-hand skills Neil Argus or Kim Possible possessed. Instead, despite a decade in the business, he was nothing more than a tall, skinny college kids in a funny purple costume.

_The costume!_

Desperately he reached for the controls on his left wrist. If nothing else, he would be able to signal his brothers, who could home in on the suit's built-in tracking devices. All he had to do was mash the center of the tiny screen.

He never got the chance. There was a sting in his shoulder as two prongs buried themselves just under his skin. Reflexively, he tried brushing them off, but before his gloved hand could reach it he was jolted with a huge blast of current. His mind could only form the single word 'taser' before he blacked out completely.

When he came to, he was already bound. The tasers the police used would only knock somebody out just long enough for them to subdue someone. He had been hit with enough juice to render him unconscious for what seemed like a fairly long time. It was darker out, though he could not tell very much from the single window placed high on one wall. At least it wasn't night, though he didn't know if it was still Tuesday, or he had been out for longer than that.

Mego twisted his hands in his bonds. Apparently his wrists were bound with duct tape as well, at least as far as he could tell by the way he was able to flex his arms. It was a purely low-rent way of binding him, but still completely effective. Even though he was in pretty good physical shape, there was no way he was going to be able to break them. Then again, there was whatever was being used to keep him chained to the wall.

Carefully he tugged until he could get his fingers on the communicator controls. He couldn't reach the screen to send out a general distress call, but at least he could reach the on-button. He mashed it as quickly as he could, hoping his brothers were smart enough to be at the tower instead of running out to find him on foot.

He slumped slightly when the tiny earpiece mounted in his cowl didn't come to life. There should have been a moment of white noise as the it connected to the main communications system. Painfully, he shifted his finger back into position, mashing the little dimple several more times before giving up in exhaustion. Grimly he realized the circuits must have been fried by the taser. The suit had been completely disabled. Then too, he didn't know how long he had been out. Perhaps something besides the weapon had been used on him. If the suit had gone for several days without his glow power to recharge it…

No. If he had been out that long he probably would have known it. His body would have been considerably more stiff, and his foot would not have recovered as fast as it had. It was his best guess that it was either late Tuesday or the day afterward.

The door to the non-descript room swung inwards. A small man came in, flanked by two larger men dressed just like the one who captured him. He seemed to regard their prisoner for a moment, before turning to one of the men.

"Are you certain he is one of them?"

"Positive. We had a lock on him every step of the way. I saw him use his powers with my own eyes." The man said confidently. His voice was low and soft, though it still carried throughout the room. There was an air of danger about the speaker, though he was still clothed head-to-toe in plain black.

"Good. Make certain he is securely bound. I don't want any _foul_-ups."

Mego raised an eyebrow at the man's strange emphasis on the word foul. He tried to take a good look at him, apparently causing the man some amusement. He was wearing a dark brown sweater with reinforced shoulders and elbow pads, similar to the type worn by the military, along with olive colored trousers. That was the only thing distinctly military about the man, who seemed too small to have ever seen any kind of service.

"You won't get away with this." Mego growled, doing his best to struggle as the two goons checked his bonds. He squeezed his eyes shut, embarrassed that he couldn't think of anything wittier to say.

"Oh I won't?" He hefted the power inhibitor. "This little jewel says differently. I would thank the people who developed it, if that didn't mean exposing myself to the wrong people. Then again, once I deliver you to the boss…" He trailed off, caressing the weapon like it was a favored pet. "Then again, I hope the rest of your team decides to show up. That will secure my standing within _The Flock_."

That, at least, made sense, as well as explaining his earlier comment. He was part of what they had previously considered a group of crazies who considered themselves followers of Team Go's currently incarcerated main adversary, Aviarius.

"More like you're going to share a cell with bird-brain. Do you have any idea who I am?"

The man touched his chin, as if he were lost in thought. "Oh, let me see. Violet skin, purple outfit, seen to have the power of shrinking. I would think I have a very good idea who you are, Mego. Or should I say, Mervin Godfrey. Oh, don't act so surprised. That mask and cowl does little to disguise who you actually are. Besides, I think we have very little to fear from your erstwhile brothers at the moment. You see, those fools are currently out combing the city for you, looking in all the usual places. Such pathetic imaginations. They think that every villain will always stay true to form and return to their usual hideouts.

"You see, if there is anything we have learned since the boss tried taking you down, it was to capture you separately. That way you could not function as a team. So, now I have a powerless, skinny boy as my captive, ready to be handed over to him."

"How are you going to hand me over to somebody who is currently in federal prison? It's not like his lawyers are going to plea-bargain him out this time. The courts can look the other way when he's out fighting us, but breaking into the local federal reserve? Come on? What are you going to do, tuck me under one arm and go to him on visiting days?"

The man chuckled slightly, as if he were trying to mimic his supposed leader's nearly insane giggling. "You make too many assumptions, Mego." With that, he turned and left, taking the two goons with him.

What was that about? If they weren't reporting to Aviarius, then who?

He found he really didn't want to find out. Anyone involved with the bird-obsessed madman was dangerous enough, and there was always the possibility they had something more dangerous than a power inhibitor in their possession. If they had one of those staffs…

Mego tried not to think about that. By some estimates, the inhibitor only shut off conscious control of his power, and it's effects could last anywhere from twenty-four hours to several days, or, if it were like the original prototype Disco Neck Ted had, it may even last for up to a week, though that particular version had been destroyed and their sources told them it had never been completely duplicated. There was, of course, the fact that he really didn't trust those same sources, but it was all he had to go on.

Hoping that they were indeed telling the team the truth, he concentrated, trying to access his power. If he could shrink down enough, he could slip out of his bonds. Maybe. There was always the chance that in his smaller form he would not have the strength to get himself free of the adhesive in the tape. There had been that embarrassing incident with some fly-paper…

There was a surge of hope as purple light flickered around his body for a moment, but it died away, leaving him feeling like he was trying to remember a dream that was rapidly fading back into his subconscious. He spend another ten minutes trying to repeat the feat, only to be frustrated. The flicker meant the inhibitor was starting to wear off, but if past experience told him anything, he was still a long way off from being able to use his shrinking effectively. He estimated he would have to shrink by more than a half to have any hope of getting his large hands through the tight tape. If only he had Herman's strength. He paid lip-service from time to time about how superior his power was, but even stripped of his super-human strength, Hego would still be strong enough to rip right through it, if his muscle-bound body hadn't seized up from being in such a position for too long.

That made him think of something else. He was indeed the skinniest of the remaining siblings. The Wegos had filled out slightly as they matured, though they would never be as tall as he was. There were some benefits to being slightly built.

He managed to roll over onto his side. That ended up pulling his arms further back, sending some pain through his stiff shoulders, but he could bear it. He arched his body, bringing his legs back as far as they could go, until he could grip his own ankles.

Whoever designed their costumes left some crucial things out. For one thing, there were no pockets to speak of, save a small pouch built into the belt. The only thing he kept there was his car keys and a special ID that Global Justice had given him to use without endangering his secret identity. He almost laughed thinking how pointless that was, considering everyone seemed to know. Might as well prance around campus all purple, for all the good the secret had done him. The only people who didn't know were the students from other states. For whatever reason, the news of their exploits never seemed to travel far from Go City.

The man who captured him seemed to be a professional, but he did miss one thing when he searched the purple-clad hero. There was a tiny pouch attached to his left boot. It wasn't as big or obvious as the one his sister had, but there was just enough room to carry some extra things he could need from time to time. One of those things was a small pocket knife. It was one of the red ones, with multiple tools, though it was a tiny version with a blade only just more than an inch long. Carefully he pulled it out of the pouch, not minding that his ball-point pen slipped out onto the floor.

He stretched his feet out again, taking a few moments to let the muscles loosen back up. The pain of his maneuver was almost more than he could bear, but he knew he would have to do it again.

That is, if he was even able to get the blasted knife open. It was designed with a little groove for his fingernail. That was a bit of a tall order, considering he had gloves on. Why did they even wear the things, except to complete their uniforms? Shego had added metal claws to hers, to increase her cutting and slicing ability when she was using her powers, but his lacked any such modification. It took all of his concentration to wriggle his fingers around just so, poking the ridge of a nail through the thin leather-like material. He prayed he had opened the blade, and not the similarly shaped nail file.

Gritting his teeth, he twisted his body around one more time. He couldn't get a good enough angle to cut through the tape binding his wrists, but if he could just cut his ankles free…

"I'm an idiot." He whispered to himself. If he could get his wrists past his feet, he could get at the tape with his teeth. Straining, he tried just that. The knife dropped to the floor, but if he was able to do this…

Just as his shoulders felt like they were about to rip out of their sockets, his feet slipped past. His wrists would be raw from the way the tape constricted on them, but he would at least be in a better position.

Twisting his whole body around, he finally got a good look at how he was bound. Tape had been wrapped around his wrists, and what looked like a bicycle cable had been passed around it, securing him to a stout-looking pipe. He lost any hope of yanking it free at that point. Good condition or no, a normal person just wasn't going to break that without tools.

He tried chewing through the tape, but it was bunched up just so, making it hard to bite through it. He cursed softly in frustration, then remembered the knife. It was much easier picking it up this time, especially with the blade open. Sticking the grip in his mouth, he started gently sawing on the tape. That took longer than he liked, but at least his hands were finally free, and he found himself being thankful for the gloves, as he could have likely cut himself if he wasn't wearing them.

Mego made short work of the tape on his ankles. As softly as he could, he made his way to the door. Some of his hope faded when he heard voices outside. He couldn't make out what they were saying, but if they were right out there, it would only take him a moment to be hit with a taser once more. Considering the building pressure in his bladder, there would be some rather uncomfortable results if he lost motor control again. Somehow he thought that was funny, considering it was the least of his worries.

The other problem was the door itself. He tried the knob, finding it firmly locked, with a keyhole on his side instead of a manual switch. The door was also very sturdy looking, probably made of metal. Once again he wished he had his brother's considerable strength. Such barriers were nothing to him.

Looking around, he considered his options. The window had bars on it, so that route was cut off. He was beginning to think all he had succeeded in doing was making himself more comfortable, at least until they came to check on him again. If he could only shrink down…

Then he spotted the telephone. It was an older rotary type, but if it worked… Tentatively, he picked up the receiver. He had a moment, realizing if anyone was actually using it at the moment, he would be instantly discovered.

Desperately, he dialed the first number that came to mind. He said a silent prayer as it rang…and rang…and rang. He counted off eleven rings. One more and it would go to voice-mail. There was always the hope that Bonnie would check it once she was done with her classes, but who knew how long that would take?

Just before the twelfth ring, he heard her worried voice saying "Hello," right as the line went dead.

The door crashed open as two of the black clad men rushed him.

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Bonnie Rockwaller (and all Kim Possible Characters) © Disney


	19. Bonnie to the Rescue

**_Redeemable_: Part XIX**

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Conyers Construction Company didn't look like any contractor Bonnie had ever seen. The building itself was rather non-descript, but it looked a lot more like an abandoned waterfront warehouse than the main office of a company listed as an all-purpose builder. Her father made a career of working with those folks, so she did have a pretty good idea what she was looking at. The only way the place actually could be what it purported to be is if it existed only as an inexpensive place to simply answer the phone and do paperwork. Maybe they simply leased their equipment and used trailers at the job site.

There were dozens of what-ifs that played out in her mind as she surveyed the place. For perhaps the tenth time that night she found herself asked "What would Kim do?" Much as it grated on her pride, that was the only example she had to go by, and that example was telling her to trust her gut. That inner voice was telling her there was something just out of kilter with the situation. Bonnie searched her feelings, but she had no idea whether her boyfriend was inside the building or not. She couldn't 'sense his presence' or such, but checking the place out was better than sitting at the tower doing nothing.

The water taxi pilot did a double-take, but otherwise didn't say anything when she boarded the boat. As far as she knew, there had only been one female to wear such a costume to and from the island, but she guessed since she was being picked up there, she must have an especially good reason for wearing it. She didn't think trying to relieve stress and boredom where what came to the man's mind, though she really didn't care. He could go running back to Hego and the Wegos for all that it mattered at that point. If he knew how to contact them, then more power to him.

Her perspective of the city changed somewhat when she finally stepped off the boat. The weather kept slipping from honest rain, back to mist and even a small bit of fog. The mist enshrouded city seemed much larger than it had on the map. What had seemed like a grouping of small buildings from her vantage point at the base of the tower, were actually quite large, covering a great deal of real estate. She was forced to break out into a jog if she was going to make up the distance from the closest dock to the address.

Fortunately the warehouse district was laid our pretty much on a grid pattern. Back home she was accustomed to roads wandering just about anywhere at random, being built to follow the hilly topography of her Colorado home. The Go City waterfront had no such topographical features, or if it ever did, that had long ago been torn down so they could warehouse as much freight coming off the lake as possible. Long before the city had become a major center for banking and corporate headquarters, its lifeblood had been the commerce that came off that monstrous body of water. The shift in fortunes was evident, as the great bulk of shipping had moved to the great container yards where the uniformly sized boxes could be off-loaded and put on trucks or trains to be delivered throughout the state and nation.

She didn't take time to think what people may think about a young woman dressed as she was jogging through the half-abandoned storage facilities on the old waterfront. There simply weren't many people to actually see her, save for a few dock workers emptying a truck into one of the many buildings. Bonnie's mind took just long enough to recognize that if the doors of the building were not open and she could not see the fresh cardboard boxes inside, she would have assumed the building had been abandoned as well. In reality the places only needed an intact roof and a working lock to contain whatever cargo they had to for however long.

_Is that what it's like for Ron Stoppable_? She asked herself when she realized she had run right past her destination. _Too much focus on the city, less on actually finding your boyfriend._

She still couldn't shake the feeling that he might simply be stepping out on her. There were still some trust issues to be worked out. Mervin was a fairly good-looking guy. With a little work on his shaggy hair, and a good coach, he could actually stand a good chance at finding work as a local model. Not that his personality would lend itself to that…

…no, actually, it would be exactly right. He was every bit as big a diva as she was. Modeling would make him the center of attention…

_Stop it, Rockwaller! Don't make yourself start uttering even more of Possible's catch-phrases!_ Even so, she knew she really had to get her head into that particular game.

When she finally identified the correct building, she stopped short. What exactly was she going to do? Was she just going to charge in there and take on an unknown number of baddies who had somehow managed to take out a trained superhero? What if it really was a construction company and they simply dialed her number by mistake? How was it going to look if she busted in there wearing that outfit, shocking the life out of some secretary fielding calls for her bosses?

That was one thing she could pretty much discard. Her phone number was still tied to her address in Middleton, so it had a Tri-City area code. What were the chances they would be calling somebody from her home-town? There was always the chance they could have been trying to reach her father and got her by mistake, but that had never happened before. She was even on a different company than her father's cell, and he was strictly local, preferring to not only stay in the Tri-city, but Middleton itself.

She weighed that likelihood against what she was actually seeing with her own eyes. No, the place did not look like a contractor and no, they probably had not called her phone by mistake. A professional would not have simply hung up without apologizing for their mistake, would they?

Bonnie roundly cursed herself for playing dress-up back at the tower. If she still had her semi-conservative dress on she could have simply waltzed right in the front door and pretended to be somebody seeking to secure their services. That would have been a splendid way to reconnoiter the place without raising too much suspicion.

No. There was a glitch to that line of thinking. She had no way of knowing how much Mervin's…Mego's (that's what he was supposed to be called when he was 'working') prospective captors knew about him. If they were smart, they would already have lots of surveillance pictures of his current friends, family and especially his girlfriend. Bonnie was suddenly very glad that all of their after-date activities had taken place at the tower, and not out in the open where they would be all-to-evident to a skilled tracker. She remembered all too well the black and white photos her mother's private detective had taken of her father when he had his affair a decade before. The thought of her private moments being in the hands of people that would do him harm…

She fought back the sudden feeling of nausea and tried to concentrate on how she was actually going to proceed. Her preference would have been to call the brothers in to take down the warehouse, but that avenue seemed to be closed to her. Nothing she tried seemed to work with the controls of the suit. It had literally done nothing since it reshaped itself to her figure. Mego told her the suits were powered with their glow, so perhaps it had used up any stored energy changing.

At least the suit was relatively comfortable. Whatever it was made of, it certainly kept the wet and the cold from her body, though it did nothing for her hair. That remained plastered to her head, hanging limply down just past her shoulders. For a moment she considered pulling up the cowl, but it was open at the top, with a hole to pull Mego's short ponytail through. It really wouldn't offer much in the way of extra warmth, and as silly as she felt in the getup, wearing a mask would be infinitely worse in her mind.

The sound of a roll-up door opening caught her attention. She quickly ducked down behind a raised dock, peering over the edge.

Two men, dressed in black stood in the opening, obviously waiting for something. If there had been any doubts left in her mind, they were instantly dispelled when she saw them. There was no reason for construction workers to be dressed in black tactical outfits and full masks. Whatever they were up to there, they were certainly up to no good.

A black car rounded the opposite corner and pulled up to the steps leading to the open bay door. Another man appeared from inside, moving quickly down the steps to speak to somebody in the rear window of the older model Lincoln. Moments later, the small man opened the door, letting a man in yet another outlandish getup out.

At first she thought the new arrival was wearing black as well, but even in the gray late-afternoon light she quickly realized the costume was very dark blue, with some kind of pattern in dark red. The oddest feature was a frill of cream colored feathers around his neck.

It was all Bonnie could do not to gasp when she realized who the costumed man was. He wasn't wearing any kind of mask, so she had a very clear view of him. He had fairly pale skin, and dark blonde hair the color of corn. His hair was cut in a style very similar to the way Brick wore his, at least when she had last seen her one-time boyfriend.

This time the nausea was all too real. Just about a year earlier she had gone on a single date with him, when he was, like her, a senior at Middleton High School. At the time she didn't think too much about him, only that there really was no spark there and the date had been one of her more forgettable ones. Then she heard the news that he had been arrested for assaulting Kim Possible. Kim might have been her rival, but the rumors that flew around about that assault caused her quite a few bad dreams of her own. Just the fact she had gone out with the man…

Then she remembered. He had gone after Possible out of some insane notion of getting revenge for what she had done to his father, a man who was some kind of criminal in Go City. That clinched it. While she didn't know any of the details of that adventure, save what Mervin had related to her after she learned his secret, if he was out for blood with her former rival, then he would want the same against the rest of the team.

It was time to act.

It's amazing what a person can be capable of when there is no other choice. Bonne had spent the greater part of her life simply looking out for herself first. Suddenly she found the responsibility for somebody else thrust upon her, somebody who, despite her usual nature, she found herself caring deeply about, someone she wanted to share some important news with.

Calling upon everything she knew; her cheerleading skills, her twelve years of intensive ballet training, her self-defense courses, her karate training, even her brief stint at a secret ninja school, Bonnie started looking for something she could do. All of those skills aside, there was no way she was going to rush the front door. Not when there were four people visible there, plus at least a driver in the car. The men in black looked like professionals, and though she didn't see anything, she was certain they would be armed somehow.

Saying a short prayer that the suit was dark enough for stealth, she slipped around the side of the building, down a narrow alley. To her untrained eyes, there were nothing but rats to see her as she looked for another way into the old warehouse. She was rewarded when she came to a low window covered with a set of bars. Grabbing them, she tugged, nearly falling onto her butt as the old, rusted grating came loose.

The window opened outwards and was just big enough for her to squeeze through. She cursed under her breath when she realized her slightly more prominent backside didn't quite want to fit, but she managed. If she had been in her own clothing, it would likely have been slightly ripped.

The room was empty save for a table. It took her a few moments for her eyes to adjust before she realized there was something sitting on that table. It looked like some kind of weapon, though it wasn't a gun. Once more her limited experience with Kim Possible came back to her, making her think that it was some kind of high-tech beam weapon.

She picked it up, finding it to be lighter than she expected. The outer casing was made of blue plastic, with some kind of writing embossed in it. "Stratus Laboratories Metaform Abilities Inhibitor" was written in large letters. It had a standard pistol-type grip, with a trigger and a lever mounted so it could be worked with a thumb. The only indicators on the lever were red and green dots, with the point at the red dot.

_Abilities Inhibitor! _That was how they captured Mego! Maybe if they used it to strip him of his powers, it could be used to restore them!

She froze in her tracks when she heard a low moan. She spun around, seeing the lone figure huddled in the corner of the room.

"Mervin!" She whispered, rushing over to his side, the inhibitor still clutched in her right hand.

He looked up, shaking his head as if he had just come to. His eyes opened wide when he realized just who was crouching at his side.

Before he could say a word, she mashed her lips against his, forgetting their predicament for a moment. Apparently he did as well, giving into the kiss. Finally, he was the one who broke it.

"Bonnie? What in the holy hell are you doing here?" He breathed.

"Getting you out of here. There's a guy out there right now, and I think he's the son of one of your enemies. Unless I miss my guess, he's here for you."

"Have you got anything that can cut me loose?" He twisted around so she could see his bonds. His wrists were secured to a thick metal cable with a number of very large zip-ties.

"I've got a nail-file. Maybe I can pick the releases."

"No time." He whispered back. She could hear the approaching voices as well. In moments the four she had seen would more than likely appear, then they would have two captives.

"God, I hope this works." She pointed the device at him, flipping the lever to the green dot. Closing her eyes, she pressed the trigger. The inhibitor made a low humming sound, then went silent.

"Did that work?" She whispered, cracking an eye open.

Mego's answer came in the form of his whole body suddenly glowing purple. He shrank down to about two feet tall, pulling his hands and feet free of the bindings before snapping back to full size.

"Do you trust me?" He said, grabbing her arms.

"What?"

He didn't wait any longer. His purple glow flared one more time and Bonnie found the whole room suddenly growing around them. What had been a space about fifteen foot square suddenly looked like a football stadium.

Bonnie couldn't help herself. She shrieked, not able to handle the sudden change in perspective. It was one thing to watch him demonstrate his power, it was entirely different experiencing it first-hand.

Mego shifted his hand down to hers, never breaking contact. "Whatever you do, don't let go." He said, gripping her hand tighter than she normally would have liked. They made a break for the table, which was the only shelter of any sort in the otherwise empty room. She looked down at her other hand, realizing she still clutched the power inhibitor in it. It had shrunken down right along with her, as had her purse.

They were under cover not a moment too soon. The door swung open, admitting the two black-clad men she had seen out at the entrance. "He's gone again, boss." One of them said.

"What?" The smaller man pushed his way in. It didn't take them long to spot the open window. "You morons! What kind of idiots don't use real hand-cuffs?" He pointed at the empty zip-ties abandoned where Mego had been tied up moments before.

"They usually work. That wimp isn't strong enough to break out of them."

"No, I told you we should have used the inhibitor on him again. Now, get around the outside and start looking for them!"

Bonnie looked down at the device in her hand again. A horrible expression crossed her face as she slammed it down on the concrete floor. In its current state, it shouldn't have made that much noise. Only what she wasn't counting on was what happened the moment it lost contact with her hand.

There wasn't a purple glow, but the gun suddenly popped back to full-size. It caught both of them completely by surprise, the wave of air created by an object suddenly growing from about half an inch long to over twenty threw them back like it was an explosion. They both ended up being thrown clear of the table, landing hard on their backsides. They might have only been about two inches tall at the moment, but from her perspective it still hurt.

"There he is, and he's got company!" the remaining smaller man said, pointing at the two as they scrambled to their feet. He dove toward them as they tried scrambling away.

Too late, Bonnie realized he wasn't reaching for them, but the inhibitor. If they popped back to full-size, they would be able to cover more ground, but then they would be faced with an unknown number of assailants. Gripping his hand so tight it made all feeling go out of hers, she ran towards the open door. It was time to rely on Mego. This was his cup of tea.

It seemed he was of like minds with her. "Come on!" He shouted, his voice sounding more like a mouse than a human at that size. His tiny vocal cords just couldn't generate the same mid-range voice.

They reached the door, just as the small man rose, bearing the inhibitor. Bonnie spared a look back as he leveled the weapon at them and pulled the trigger. There was a surge of blue light, and she expected their quarters to become extremely cramped very quickly.

Only, the blue light did not envelope them. The device exploded in a shower of blue sparks. Bonnie realized as they scrambled across the main floor that she must have damaged it when she threw it down.

The man must have been a student of every bad-guy cliché, for once he realized the device would no longer function, he resorted to throwing it at them. Bonnie screamed as the inhibitor flew straight at them, looking like a truck flying through the air from her point of view.

She dove to the side, Mego heading the other direction. She yelped when she realized their hands had parted. Contact was broken, and in that instant she knew her body would snap back to full-size instantly just like the gun had.

Bonnie opened her eyes, expecting to be face-to-face with the villains. With a gasp that sounded much smaller than it should have, she realized she was still only two inches tall, just as Mego was. The weapon slid harmlessly across the floor, bouncing off a crate.

Mego stood there for a moment, obviously just as surprised as she was that she remained miniature. Then his professionalism took hold once more and he rushed toward her, pulling her along.

They pulled up short when they realized another figure was blocking their path. The Son of Aviarius stood over them, grinning crookedly as a boot-clad foot rose to smash them into the concrete.

Mego leaped as if he were taking off to fly, one fist held up into the air. Bonnie held on tight as she remembered how he had taken out the carjacker. In one moment they were two inches tall. The next, she was back to her normal five foot six. His aim was true, and a fist came rocketing up from the floor faster than the eye could follow, crashing into the chin of the smirking, blonde-haired villain. He went flying backwards from the blow, landing on his back and not moving, knocked cold from the blow.

Bonnie didn't quite know what came over her then. Later she would simply put it off to a surge of adrenaline, which was very likely the case. All she could see were two black shapes converging on them. With a primal scream she kicked out, connecting with the nearest one's chin.

Mego ducked a punch thrown by the other one, trying to bring his elbow up, but he missed. Then he simply disappeared in a wash of purple light.

She knew what was coming next. The purple light surged again as he used his power to lend extra force to his blow. He didn't connect with the bad-guy's chin this time, but he still knocked him backwards, right into range of a spin-kick delivered with a more proper karate yell.

Bonnie spun on the small man, who remained in the door of Mego's former cell. He screamed and started running, avoiding the two as he ran off into the lengthening shadows of the early evening.

"Let's get out of here." She said, panting heavily.

"Right with ya." He said, following closely on her heels.

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Bonnie Rockwaller (and all Kim Possible Characters) © Disney


	20. Something to Tell You

**_Redeemable_: Part XX**

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a/n - I've posted a look at Bonnie in Mego's uniform at DeviantArt. You can access my DA page through the link in my profile.

**Zaratan** has taken up Scoutcraft Piratess' **The Ronless Factor**, which now includes original chapters by him. Even if you're a dedicated Kim/Ron fanatic like me, check this one out.

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Mervin and Bonnie sat across from each other on his couch, their legs pulled up under them so they could face each other on the shabby piece of furniture. For a long while they sat there just looking at each other. Finally, it was Mervin who broke the silence.

"Uh, exactly why are you wearing my uniform?"

"Doy. I can't be seen out rescuing somebody in my civilian clothes. What would that do to my secret identity. Oh, and you're welcome."

He started to say something, then thought the better of it. "So, do you get into all your boyfriend's closets and try on their stuff?"

Bonnie pursed her lips. "Let's just say I've got this thing about specials suits like this. Love the way it changed to fit me."

Mervin perked up at that comment. "It what? Oh, no, please no. Tell me you didn't put on the first one, the one on the left."

"I guess I did. Don't really remember now. Other stuff came up, oh, like kicking some bad-guy's butts all over the place."

He slumped his shoulders, sitting back. "That was my new one. Guess it's yours now, cause it only does that once."

Bonnie reached up for her collar. She had long ago taken the gloves off, but the suit remained stuck on her. "Exactly how am I supposed to get this thing off, anyway? Not that it's uncomfortable or anything, but eventually I'm going to have to get out of it, as in, real soon if you know what I mean."

"Here." He leaned closer to her and inspected the tab of the zipper. "You've got part of the fabric stuck in it…just…gotta…tug." The zipper finally came free, opening partway.

She smiled softly at him, wishing he had unzipped it a little further than just down to her collarbones. Maybe later…definitely later she would let him. No, she was going to make him unzip it, not just a little further, but all the way. But, before any of that could happen, there were things to talk about. Things she had to tell him.

Mervin sensed what she was thinking, though it was more of a coincidence than any form of telepathy. Then again, maybe he was just learning to read her already. "You said on the way back here that you had something important you needed to talk to me about." He looked at her hopefully. The whole conversation on the boat was uncomfortably close to "We need to talk."

Bonnie reached across the couch and took both his hands, carefully stripping his gloves off as well before twining her fingers with his. "Okay, first off, I need to know something. What's the deal with the shrinking?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, okay, I get it that you can shrink other stuff or other people, but when I let go of that gun-thing, it just popped right back to normal size."

"Oh, you mean when we got separated and you stayed small? I haven't got a clue. Here, hang on." His glow surged to life, spreading instantly from his body to hers. Moments later, Bonnie estimated they were about two feet tall. It was an interesting perspective and she wondered about the opportunities it could afford. Such as her remaining slightly smaller while Mervin returned to full-size…

She shook her head. She didn't need that kind of image in her mind, not if she wanted to get through what she had to with him. Then again, there wasn't any particular reason for him to play with his size, he was just fine…

_Stop that!_

He let go of her hands, holding his palm outwards toward her. Both of them remained tiny, engulfed by the suddenly mammoth sofa. He glowed once more, regaining his full stature, towering above her.

Bonnie frowned. Was she stuck that way until he brought her back? Or was the effect temporary? Would it be dangerous for her to snap back to full size all at once instead of under his control? He didn't give her a chance to find out, putting his hand back on hers and bringing her back to normal.

Standing up, he put his hand on the surface of his coffee table and shrank it down along with him to about half its normal size. Then he let go of it, standing back. Just like the when Bonnie let go of the weapon, it snapped back to regular size in the blink of an eye. He tried the same thing with a couple more objects.

"I don't get it. This is how my power has always worked. I have to remain in contact with anything I've shrunken or it snaps back."

"Maybe it's because I'm a person?" She asked, her eyes following him around the room.

"No. It's always worked the same. Let go, you snap back. I can't figure it." He turned and cocked his head at her. "Unless there's something special about you that I don't know about."

Bonnie caught the questioning look in his eyes. Yes, there were plenty of things in her life that he did not know about. For the most part, they were things that she would reveal gradually, all part of getting to know each other. There were other things that would remain a secret, no matter what. One couldn't be a human being in the modern world without running across things that had to remain just so. She had given her word about the ninja school, and she wasn't about to go into the part where she had been pining after Ron Stoppable.

Did she have any special powers? That actually struck her as kind of funny. A year earlier and she would have laughed in Mervin's face about it, but she had seen things since then, not even counting her boyfriend's and his brother's powers, that changed her way of thinking. She often entertained the fantasy that Sensei had selected her to train that week with Ron because she too had some great mystical power buried deep within her, but the truth of the matter was that she was really just a random selection and it could have just as easily been that little kid with the glasses from High School that went to Yamanuchi.

"Unless you consider being a ballerina a power, no, I don't."

Mervin stroked his considerable chin. Oddly, she noticed that he didn't have much in the way of whiskers, though it had been a couple days since he was able to shave. At least she wouldn't have to contend with him growing a soul-patch or a Vandyke. She utterly hated facial hair in men, preferring them clean-shaven. Suddenly his eyes lit up.

"The suit."

"Yeah, what about it?"

"It's got to be the suit. The fabric is supposed to be made of some molecular stuff that works with my power so it's easier to shrink with it on. Doesn't matter so much to me any more, but when I was just learning, I'd sometimes shrink down but my clothes would stay normal size unless I concentrated. Take it off and let's try again."

She cocked an eyebrow at him. "I'm not exactly wearing very much under this, if you know what I mean." She cocked her head toward the open door of his bedroom, where her dress was still sitting spread out on the bed.

"Well, it's not like I haven't seen you na…"

"Mervin! What if your brothers walk in here?" Despite herself, she smiled wickedly, not so much over the fact he was pretty much asking her to perform a strip-tease for him, something she actually wouldn't mind doing in the least, but because of the looks on Hego's and the Wegos' faces when the two of them had arrived, hand-in-hand. They had only just returned to the tower, having exhausted all the places they thought he would have been taken. Eventually she was going to have to rub it in that she had been the one to find him using tools almost anyone had at their disposal, but for that moment the two of them just smiled and headed on up to his room.

"Uh, it's just in the interest of science."

"Okay, fine." She started to pull the zipper down once more, but stopped just short, only exposing a portion of her cleavage. "On second thought, we can explore that later. I've got something important I have to tell you first." She patted the cushion beside her and he followed her instruction quickly.

Instead of speaking, she grabbed his shoulders and pulled him in for a kiss. It seemed a little strange kissing him while his skin was still purple, but once she closed her eyes it was as good as it ever was.

She finally broke the kiss, opening her eyes so she could look at his. She hadn't kissed anyone like that since…since the time she made a play for Ron many months earlier. Even kissing Brick had never been quite like that. She had feelings for the big football player, but in the final estimation, he had always been nothing more than a trophy boyfriend, the hottie she always thought she was entitled to. Kissing Mervin Godfrey was an end unto itself, something she wanted to do simply because that's exactly what she wanted to do, not something she figured was necessary to keep his mind just on her.

Giving in to the moment, she kissed him again, pulling his body close to hers, barely keeping herself in check. The reason she had lost control with him the day they met came roaring back to her. He seemed to fulfill a burning desire in her that she didn't even know she had until that point. It was so surprising to find out exactly what she wanted in a man, especially when it was so different than what she had once supposed. The only time she had really gone after a tall, skinny guy before had been her flirting with Josh Mankey, and that was only because she wanted to get under Kim Possible's skin.

"The other day, the choreographer for the cheer squad told me something that almost made me panic. She pointed out that I've gained a little weight."

Mervin smiled. "I hadn't noticed. You're still really, really hot looking."

"Not the point. I haven't gained that much weight since I stopped growing. See, you're the first guy I've ever been with who I didn't use…well, we kinda just did it, you know…"

"Without protect…whoa!" He backed off a few inches, his eyes going wide.

"This morning, I skipped my classes so I could go see a doctor. I'm on the pill, have been for several months. Figured this was eventually going to happen, so I wanted to be ready. Only thing is, I really didn't trust them all that much. I've always been scared about getting in trouble, and here I am in a relationship like this…"

"That's what's so important? Oh man, I never thought…"

"Let me finish. They did some tests on me, most of which I won't know the results of for a few days, maybe a week, but they made me take one of those instant tests."

"Okay. So?"

"So…long story short…it came up negative."

She watched his eyes. As expected, there was more than a little relief in them.

"The doctor said that test was almost as reliable as the blood test, so he said it was likely there was some other reason I was putting on weight. I can't tell you how glad I am that I'm not pregnant." She reached out and took his hands again, holding them firmly. "Not that us having a kid is such a bad thing, it's just…I'm almost nineteen and I'm not ready for that just yet.

"The most important thing, though, is that I'm ready for something else. I know I've only known you for about a month, but for the last couple days I've been dying to tell you something, something that would be the same no matter how that test came back. Something I don't think I've ever been able to say to anyone before, whether it's because I've always been such a stuck-up bitch, or because it would have been a lie.

"Mervin, I want to be your girlfriend."

"Huh? Wait, I thought you already were. That's what I've been calling you."

"I know. I don't exactly know how to put this in words, but I don't want to be just a 'we're dating' kind of girlfriend, I want to be your girlfriend-girlfriend."

"Not sure I follow."

Bonnie bit her lip, not sure how to proceed. Finally, she screwed up her resolve enough and plunged ahead.

"I'm falling in love with you."

She had seen men drop their jaws before. She was a beautiful woman and she knew it. Bonnie also knew how to present herself so she knew they knew it too. She was blessed with the same killer looks and bodies that all the Rockwaller women possessed, even her mother, though the elder Rockwaller had taken on a little more matronly persona over the last few years.

Only this time it wasn't her sexiness that garnered that response, it was what she said. Sliding up closer to him, she repeated it, pushing his chin up as she did.

"I love you."

For a moment she thought he was going to say something in response. She had always figured that once she said something like that, the guy was honor bound to say the same thing in return. Somehow she hoped he did feel that way, but she wanted to hear that honestly, spontaneously, not just as a reflection of her own heart being laid open.

Instead he reached for her and kissed her, returning both of her busses in equal measure. She slowly gave into the kiss, realizing it was perhaps the best response she could have expected for her proclamation. Almost unwillingly, she leaned back, looking into his purple eyes. An odd question formed in her mind at that moment. She wondered what his eyes looked like before he gained his powers. Certainly they hadn't always been that way.

"You know, not even a month ago, if somebody had told me I was gaining weight, I would have slugged them. Well, maybe just slapped them a little, but when I was talking to the doctor about it, I realized I didn't care so much any more. I realized that I wanted to change who and what I really was, and if that's just an outward sign of it, then so be it."

"So, what did he say? About the weight and all?"

She laughed softly, putting a hand on his cheek. He did need to shave, if only to relieve the slightly prickliness. "You know all that stuff we've been eating? Those fancy hot dogs, the deep dish pizza? Guess all that stuff's a lot more fattening than I was giving it credit for. I used to eat like a bird, mostly salads and stuff. Gonna have to watch it, maybe just save that stuff for my dates, or I will be in danger of losing my spot on the squad."

"Can't have that, now can we?"

"Most def not. Turns out the doc thinks the biggest thing is because I quit smoking."

"You…smoked?" That statement seemed to effect him more than the thought she might have been pregnant.

"Yeah. Picked it up from my older sisters when I was sixteen. Didn't think it was such a big deal, since most of the time I couldn't do it until I got home, but one day I realized I was sitting at lunch with some of my girlfriends and all I was having was a diet soda and three cigarettes, so I stopped. Pretty much forgot that it's easy to gain some weight when you quit. Believe me, it's been one of the hardest things I've ever done. I mean, right now I would love to have one, but I'm not going to. I'm changing my life. I don't want to be miserable, alone, smoking myself to death. I'd rather be fat and happy with you.

"So, what do you say? Will you be my boyfriend-boyfriend?"

He smiled at her. He looked so handsome when he smiled. It wasn't the knock-your-socks off Hollywood star kind of handsome, but the kind she wanted to see for the rest of her life.

"God, I hope so." He said back to her. "If you want a freaky purple guy with weird brothers and a criminal for a sister."

The wicked smile reappeared. "Oh, I think the purple is kinda sexy. Wonder how far it goes?" She reached for the tab of his zipper and started pulling it down. True, after wearing the costume for nearly two days straight, things were a little funky in there, but there were ways of curing that.

Obviously, he had the same thing in mind as he started pulling her zipper down…and down…and down…

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**The End** (?)

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Bonnie Rockwaller (and all Kim Possible Characters) © Disney


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